Necromancer
by Vanessa S. Quest
Summary: ConYuu MuRam GwenGun. Yuri and Ken have just stumbled upon something big, a new presence in Shin Makoku who, surprise, has also taken an interest in Yuri- but is he friend or foe? With Yuri hurt, Ken and Conrad plan to find out! Part 2 in the Series. DONE
1. Part 1 Necromancer

Necromancer, by Vanessa S. Quest

A/N: Hey all, it's time for yet another story-arch! This one takes place as a sequel to Self-Restraint, basically that means, if you haven't read that yet (or to recap, or if you never plan to read it…) Conrad and Yuri are engaged, Ken and Wolfram are …together ambiguously (screw-bunnies) and so that no one's left out, Gwendel and Gunter round out the set.

Please R & R. Really now, please? I hope you enjoy it.

-The Management

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He was stunned when it happened, and it was so quick he hardly realized he had closed his eyes.

Suddenly, his eyes shot back open, wide with an emotion that he knew was neither panic nor horror, but somewhere between, he knitted his black eyebrows into a tense knot as his eyelids grew closer, wincing over his black eyes. His lips opened as he panted, cold sweat over his whole body, though only that which was exposed to the elements seemed to register.

His hands and face stung after another strong gust of wind. Forcibly sitting up, his hand moved up to the side of his head, pulling it away to reveal, in no great surprise, a sizable dab of red. To say he was pained would be untrue, he was injured, but right now he couldn't feel it, how could he? He had to think, and the buzz in his ear was making it rather hard to do just that much.

He had to think of how to get out of this, he looked around to spot the source of his injury, grimacing as it came to blurred view.

There before him, a soldier, a horse, a bloody horse shoe, more-over there was Ken, hands up as he was trying to talk the soldier out of running the wet teenager through, and then what he saw made him know what he had to do.

To his own accord, Yuri closed his eyes, opening them back up with his hair long, pupils slits, eyes slighted and over-all displeased to have been summoned.

Illuminated by a blue glow, Yuri walked to the horse, the animal knowing better than to try to move, not daring to escape, which seemed to trigger the soldier's survival mechanism as he stammered and pointed his sword at the bigger threat, Yuri.

The maoh somehow preferred that; instead of his friends being in danger, if it was himself he knew someone competent could come to their aid, he himself knowing he didn't count as that.

The soldier stumbled from the horse to have at least some chance with his swordsmanship than a stationary horse.

"Put it down." Ken mentioned; his voice was calm and steady, like a parent disciplining a child.

The soldier turned back to look at him, then back at the encroaching maoh. Ken also glanced at the maoh, well aware of the steady trickle of red collecting to the right side of his brow and cheek. The maoh didn't seem to particularly care, or notice.

It seemed as though Yuri was about to open his mouth to speak, but Ken somehow doubted it. This didn't seem right. It didn't seem like Yuri at all. Something this small, Yuri would have preferred to handle on his own.

"You're in my way. Move." Yuri's deep voice stimulated the man to run to higher grounds.

"Good job Shibuya, you really outdid yourself in making a coward run away slightly faster than he, oi, Shibuya? Oi!"

Ken waved his hand in front of his good friend; he noticed the maoh was continuing forward, to the horse. The king got onto it. Signaling with his eyes to his companion, Yuri took up the reins.

Ken hopped on, deciding that walking to wherever they were going, versus riding a horse, well, the horse just seemed like a better idea, really. "Shibuya, your head, are you really alright?"

He kicked the horse, driving the beast to move faster than it ever had before.

As black eyes protected by glass cast upward, looking through the lenses, he understood. The village was on fire and he could see the distinct marks of at least a semi-organized band of marauders.

Apparently they skipped the day where they were taught to loot _first_, burn _second_.

Yuri's palm went out straight ahead as he began to summon a burst of water, it shot off with the pressure of a fire hydrant with the head struck clear off, though aesthetically it had extra ribbons of water-dragons coiling around the blast, directing it up then over the fires, some of the dragons branching off to find some of the more visible bandits to detain them.

Ken looked at his friend, unsure of something. This really wasn't like Yuri, it seemed so urgent, he leaned forward to look the maoh in the eyes, seeing something very bizarre indeed.

One pupil had converted to a large oval, the other remaining the tight slit. As the large oval just happened to coincide with the side caked in blood, Ken thought best to catalog that information in the 'oh shit' pile.

Scanning the horizon, Ken could only hope Ulrich had sent the militant retainers promptly to collect them, he added to his hopes that Conrad and Yozak would also be visiting, after all, a rather large wave of bandits seemed to be pouring forward to crash against the tide of the maoh Yuri's wrath.

Yuri's head slumped then snapped back upright, as one hand clutched at the rein as tightly as he could, concentrating his maryoku on the other hand as it pointed forward.

Ken was making a head-count, finding the results perturbing. No, not so much the numbers, so much as the faces. The faces were bizarre, contorted, and strangely inhuman, and not Mazoku either.

Upon entering the center of the village it made a bit of sense, suddenly, the soldier aiming his sword at them, the presence of a soldier, and only _a_ soldier. There was a fleeting pile of bodies, but as he noticed one fall, and then get back up moments later, he started to piece it together. Hmm, so that could explain it.

He was intellectually curious, now. It had been a very long time since he last saw a necromancer, seeing one work with paper talismans and a casting circle, and a small horde of men obviously benefiting from the skill through looting, well, gee, wasn't that just special.

Cracking his neck and back he mentioned to the maoh telepathically, "_That man is raising the dead_, _he's a necromancer_."

The maoh nodded, still focusing on keeping on the horse, keeping the horse moving forward, and putting the fire out. "I see."

"_You know they aren't easy to stop_. _And these aren't like the dolls_. _These are still fused with souls_."

Yuri looked forward at the man chanting, now near enough for Ken to hear, Yuri's ear buzzing so much that he could hardly keep up his own concentration let alone be bothered trying to split it in such a way. "Wait here, I'll go."

With that, the maoh dismounted the horse, leaving Ken sitting alone in the saddle, still scanning for Shin Makoku military presence. To his utmost pleasure, he could see the flags in the distance; he also could see the state of Yuri. He fixed his glasses, continuing to internally converse with the 27th maoh, all while drawing up his yellow aura, transferring some to the teenager as he did so. "_Necromancers use very ancient_,_ complex spells_,_ the spirits are being held by those papers to the bodies of the dead_."

Yuri nodded, his step seemed strange, walking heavy on the right side; he staggered as he formed orbs of water around the paper charms, destroying them while pulling the shields upward, away from the again lifeless bodies.

The necromancer cast his eyes to the interloper. "Ah, the maoh himself? I'm honored. And this aura, it's as fierce as I've imagined it would be." The necromancer bowed, drawing his sleeved arm to his chest.

He thrust it outward, at Yuri, sending the double black back a full two steps, a watery force-field ahead of him, now stopping a marble tile similar in design to those found in mahjong. Yuri covered his right eye then pushed his hand forward, sending a wave of angry water-dragons past the shield, pulling the tile with it. As it hit the necromancer dead even, the body went limp then collapsed into a heap, revealing a kohi.

Yuri relaxed his grip; the kohi began chattering away, seemingly oblivious to Yuri's deafness; then stood to fly off.

The maoh smeared his hand downward, from his face to his chest, holding the fabric over his chest. He turned to take in the panoramic view in time to see the necromancer approach as yet another manipulated creature.

To the maoh's shock, it was a sweet little girl that looked frighteningly similar to Greta. So much so, that at first glance Yuri's heart writhed, "Maoh-sama, ne, Maoh-sama you'll lend us some of your dark destructive power, won't you? To your faithful servants who wish to bring glory to Shin Makoku and all that is evil… Won't you?"

Yuri's hand reached forward, grabbing the girl's shoulder, shaking her once, her face tilted up so he had a clear vision of her eyes that were fogged over, and even though the maoh mode did not cry, the boy inside was trembling, she couldn't be dead, and this couldn't be Greta, not his sweet little daughter! Now much closer, he could see a slight difference in the face, the nose wrong… why hadn't he noticed that at once? No, that didn't matter, this was still horrific enough. He petted her hair, eyebrows knit with remorse.

A tile fell from her hair sending the body crashing to the ground, she became yet another kohi. He grabbed the tile, reading it aloud, "Girl…" he looked at the other tile, reading it he could see a word that did not have a direct translation to Japanese, instead the elegant word was more of a string of ideas, "A man who knows no limits…"

His hearing picked up, mayhap out of necessity, turning he heard a cascade of tiles hitting something hard, just like shuffling mahjong tiles, or extra-crisp leaves as they blew in piles through the wind. It seemed the man had borrowed a page from Yuri's book, using the tiles to spell out a message in his familiars' form. The tiles read an eerie, threatening message to Yuri, a challenge to the maoh, "I'll _have_ your power."

Yuri picked up one of the tiles, inspecting it coldly, the maoh's energy was fading fast, he was pushing himself too much, "Recover."

He turned to face his friend, as he spun around his hair receded to the short-medium length the teenager was more familiar to, his eyes changing, though the two were distinguishable if compared closely, his right ankle curling in as he fell onto his side. The blood mixed with dusty earth torn up by so much motion.

Ken glanced around, when the tiles had fallen all the bodies turned into kohi. This was bizarre, even he had never seen a necromancer like that, and upon looking around he couldn't see any corpses, except for soldiers. Upon inspecting the uniforms, he noticed these weren't friendly arms, either.

"Shibuya!" Ken mentioned, dismounting the horse, he divided his strategic mind, as it took in every little detail to scour for meaning later, and to a concerned friend.

As the small band of troops arrived, Conrad dismounted and rushed to the fallen youth, "_Yuri_!"

Conrad bowed to his side, petting his face, wiping at the dirt, blood smearing. His concerned eyes were constantly fixed on Yuri.

Yuri batted his eyes open half-wide, his eyebrows wincing, contorting his face to a weary grimace as his lips parted, "Conrad…" He smiled faintly, "…you're …a little late."

Conrad smiled back at Yuri, the sorrow and concern heavy in his eyes, he laughed slightly at that, "Ah, I'm sorry Yuri-heika, but we had to escort some villagers to safety, we came as soon as we saw your grand showing."

"You mean… the villagers… they're all okay?"

Conrad nodded, "Yes."

"…but the bodies, and the fire…?"

Ken spoke up, "Yuri, the soldiers are dead, but there aren't any bodies besides those. Everything else turned into kohi when those tiles dropped." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, signaling that maybe Conrad should take a look, maybe. When he was good and ready.

Conrad knelt beside Yuri, instinctively in the pose as he had swooped down to his side, now though, as he held one of Yuri's wrists, secretly checking a pulse, the other contacting the side of Yuri's face, he let his eyes trace from Yuri's two obsidian orbs to see the warning left. His eyes cast back to Yuri's eyes, oh he noticed the differences; one eye held a focus, the other was glazed over.

"Yuri, can you see out of your right eye?" His voice was steady, calculated. Yuri's eyes averted from his own.

"You're too sharp sometimes, Conrad." Yuri mentioned. "I can, but not very well at all." He tried to force himself to a standing position, Conrad instantly pulling him to his side bracing him.

Yuri was too weak to muster a flustered response, right now, just being in Conrad's arms was all he wanted, well that and answers.

"Why were there army-men of Big Chimeron in Shin Makoku?" Ken said, though his voice was level it was threatening in its own right.

"Those were scouts that slipped in through the borders, they were trying to stir up trouble in some of the smaller villages, hoping to cause upset." Conrad reported. "Yuri, let's get you back to Covenant Castle, Yuri?"

Yuri clutched the fabric of Conrad's shirt, tapping his head into Conrad's arm. His legs giving in; he made a slow-motion fall.

Conrad's arm snaked around, catching the over-exerted Yuri in what would have looked like a dramatic dip if they had been on a ballroom floor.

Ken spotted the colors of Gwendel's men amongst the military presence, "Is Gwendel here with you?"

"He is with the villagers, as is Gunter and _Wolfram_."

Ken smiled, "Well, that's good to hear. I would like to speak with the others, Shibuya, you don't get to walk off the field, sorry."

Yuri groaned, feeling dizzy. He held his right ear; the pressure was making his equilibrium tilt, a lot. Conrad lifted him into his arms.

"You definitely pushed yourself, Yuri. You were like that before even riding over here, weren't you?"

"Aha ha, well, it wasn't as bad _then_. Gh… I feel nauseous." Yuri whined, wincing his head, he leaned his left side of his face to Conrad's chest, smooshing his cheek into a cooler tempered fold of the uniform, upset that he'd probably gotten Conrad's typically pristine uniform dirtied with his blood.

"…" Conrad looked at Yuri, waiting, at the sign of no eminent response, he repeated. "…" Hetapped his shoulder, "…!"

Yuri blinked his eyes as Conrad, focusing in, finally picking up the comment, now that his left side wasn't pinned to the warm pillow that was Conrad.

"Yuri! Yuri, you really shouldn't sleep, Gisela will meet up with us at the castle. There's a carriage waiting."

"…Carriage?" Yuri held his stomach; he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness making him shove past Conrad to roll away from his body. Conrad touched his head, pulling Yuri's bangs back, pretty sure where _this_ was heading. And rightly so, Yuri vomited, moving his hand back to his chest, he flopped back against Conrad's chest spent.

"…This is bad." Conrad muttered, luckily to Yuri's right side, thus not worrying as the black-haired youth didn't hear a word of it.

"Sorry Conrad… that was so lame… just…" his eyes were growing heavy, "I'm exhausted, why can't I just sleep, ne Conrad?"

"Because you have a nasty, nasty concussion." Ken mentioned, from seemingly nowhere. "I finished talking with the others and figured I'd keep you company." He smiled innocently at Yuri, he gave Conrad a knowing look, a look that said once Yuri was leaning on Conrad's lap, occluding the happy little hearing Yuri had from his left side they'd get to chat, and Conrad would get to know what was happening, well, as much of an update as what everyone else had.

Conrad nodded, looking back at Yuri, smiling warmly, "You're handling the circumstances _very_ well, Yuri. Better than most. Here, let's get you settled in." He mentioned, fixing Yuri within the carriage, lying on his left side, preventing his blood from getting on anything as Conrad dabbed a chilled cloth over the wound itself, gently, knowing how sore that spot _had_ to be.

"Sorry…" Yuri mentioned. He audibly groaned, curling in on his side, clamping his hand to his mouth as he winced, "I don't know why I'm sea-sick! I don't get it at all! I'm not like Wolfram so why then…"

"Yuri," Conrad fished Julia's necklace out from around Yuri's neck, he put it in Yuri's hand, "look into that, keep looking, and tell me what you see."

Ken smiled, that was sweet, in a creepy pining-for-your-ex way, well if he wasn't just calling the pot double-black. He supposed Conrad had better be sweet, if he was with Yuri like that it was entitled that Yuri got extra perks of the Conrad treatment. He did have to say Conrad was slick sometimes. A way to stop sea-sickness, not like Wolfram would ever be accommodating enough to try, is point-focus. Ken only wondered how much that could really work, on the one hand Yuri's equilibrium was off, shifted to the left so if he used his predominant left eye to focus on it, that would shift it in his favor, but he also knew he had internal bleeding to the right side, causing pressure on that spot in the inner ear that was making his equilibrium go for the loop-de-loop.

It was disheartening, though. Knowing that Yuri was already in that state, he needed medical treatment immediately, that brought to mind the second bit of cunning inside Conrad's statement, keeping Yuri talking would mean that they would know if he was awake and what his mental state would be at by time they reached Gisela.

"…It's like looking at the ocean reflecting stars, the cobalt ocean, you know, from tropical islands, how the brochures look…" Yuri began; content to do what Conrad asked of him.

"I don't think he can hear us now, not like I think he'd understand much of what we're talking about anyway." Ken started, Conrad nodded, not particularly keen on breaking his stare on Yuri to make polite eye-contact.

"No, he's babbling now, this is bad. Very bad, actually, I'm a bit worried. So this necromancer was soliciting Yuri for his power?"

Ken nodded.

"And sheep and rainbow-flavored sherbet inside a gigantic marshmallow, mama's curry…"

Ken smiled faintly at Yuri, he was such a good guy, if only Shibuya's mother had gotten to hear it she'd have been tickled pink. Conrad's soft face didn't go amiss, but that tension and unease were knitted tighter than Gwendel's sweaters of cute bear-bees that he secretly made for Elle and Greta. His eyes held such a sad look.

"He'll pull through, it is Shibuya. If I thought otherwise I'd have pulled him back to Earth as fast as you could spit… though, truthfully I do prefer a nice, clean fountain."

"Teriyaki, bear-bees, oh goalas are at the picnic too. Though, they're still in the trees. I think they're happier there… I'm happier they're _there_. Mean goalas." Yuri's eyes began to flicker shut, a bump jarred the carriage, "bumble-bee flavored bubble gum!"

Yuri's dialog wasn't helping his betrothed's sanity, which seemed about as intact as Yuri's own inane babbling.

"Love you, Conrad…" Yuri mentioned, and then the one-way conversation halted.

Conrad's eyes shot wide, "Yuri?" He tapped Yuri's shoulder, "Yuri… Yuri, wake up!"

Yuri took in soft, shallow, gentle breaths; Conrad counted about 19 within the minute.

Gisela rushed toward the carriage, "I received the message…"

"He was kicked in the head by a horse, he just lost consciousness, it's a concussion, he must be bleeding still though, he was getting worse feeling dizzy, nauseous and even threw up."

"Alright, please carry him to his bed."

Conrad lifted him, somehow he felt light, as if his spritely energy was dancing around him, Conrad watched the necklace Yuri still clutched in his hand and let out a slight sigh of relief knowing the device would protect his beloved as it had so many times before.

And where it would fall short, he would make sure to pick up where it left off. He promised that to himself.

Upon the deposition of Yuri onto crisp-clean soft sheets, Conrad began removing Yuri's shoes, unbuttoning his over-shirt, he moved to Yuri's left side as Gisela hovered in on the right. Her hand glowed an aquamarine-green tone as she soothed Yuri.

"Heika, keep it up, you're doing great."

Yuri turned his head leftward, shifting as his eyes began to flicker open, his hands felt warm and his curiosity had gotten the best of him as he had to find out how his hands could feel _so_ warm. It was the sort of infectious warmth that even though it was intense and irradiating, it was not overbearing or uncomfortably hot, it was like sitting by the window on a sunny winter day, the rays making up for the chill outside. How could he feel that way?

"C… Conrad?" Yuri's black eyes focused in on Conrad's earthy browns, his chestnut hair, his chocolate eyes, his delicious, sweet Conrad. He felt his face warm with blush only to feel it and his hand chill as one of Conrad's moved away to dab a cool cloth on Yuri's face.

He smiled faintly. His eyelashes seemed so full as he batted them at Conrad; each moment more, Yuri was becoming more aware, his head still throbbing at him in annoyance.

"Ow, my head hurts." He sighed. Flopping his head back, turning toward the right. "Oh… good… good morning Gisela, I'm sorry for being such a trouble…"

"Not at all, Heika." She smiled at Yuri, who smiled back, then winced as his head throbbed. Gisela took out a set of clean, stark-white bandages. Setting out the wrap the wound, she then smiled, covering Yuri's left eye; she closed her eyes and asked warmly, "Yuri, how many fingers is Conrad holding up?"

She peeked one eye open. Yuri turned his head to look at Conrad, having to focus through on his right eye, "Ah, uh, one…?"

Conrad smiled at Yuri apologetically, though Yuri couldn't see that fine of a detail. Conrad had propped up two fingers, touching each other, using his other hand to conceal his remaining fingers.

Yuri sighed, "No good, then?" He scanned through the room, "Wow everything really _is_ blurry." He pulled Gisela's hand off his left eye. "Come on, I want to see again. Don't tease me, Gisela."

She moved her hand to Yuri's other eye, he could see the blurry outline of a glowing light, but the more he watched it, the more tired he became until he finally gave out and rolled his eyes over, asleep. Taking the opportunity, she pulled open his eyelid to add in a clear liquid then put a gauze pad and patch over it.

"That was a local muscle relaxer; that way the strain in his eye should reduce, it should also help with some of the headache and eye pain, but his eye will be sensitive to light, he should probably keep it covered for a few days. Three should be enough, I'm sure there won't be permanent damage, but until the brain-swelling goes down… make sure he doesn't bump into anything, alright Conrad?"

Conrad nodded, "Of course. How long do you expect him to sleep for?"

"You should _wake him up_ in an hour or so, try to keep him active for at least ten minutes."

"Is he going to be permitted to sleep through the night or does he need to be woken up on a schedule?"

"Two hour intervals, wake him up, get him talking and cognitive for ten to twenty minutes then go back to bed. He'll have to be watched like that for the next seven days."

"He… is going to hate that." Conrad smiled at Yuri, looking over his figure.

"Oh, if you're the one to do it, I highly doubt he'll mind it half as much."

"Half huh? I'd like to think I could reduce the complaints to at least just one-tenth." Conrad smirked, challenge hanging the air. His fingers raked through Yuri's bangs enjoying the silky feel. "However, I need time to consult members of the security and the castle guards."

His hand traced down to Yuri's petal-soft lips, "Please stay with him until I return. I'll have some guards posted outside the door."

Gisela nodded, "Alright."

"I swear; I'm going to make that son of a bitch pay for hurting him like this."

Ken looked in from the door, "Those are my sentiments, but the question at hand is just who is our villain. That necromancer only harmed foreign military, sure that led to Yuri's unfortunate injury, as much as him landing right in front of a spooked horse's hoof, that is." Ken sighed, fixing his glasses, "I spoke with Gwendel and Gunter on the subject, he doesn't seem to be using techniques from Shin Makoku, and though he seems to be interested in Shibuya… I'm also concerned with Big Chimeron and what, exactly, they are up to. Aren't you?"

"Yes. There are a few too many questions. I'll contact Yozak to find out what he's heard."

Ken smirked, "That's good to hear. Wolfram and I are going to investigate a bit at the temple."

Conrad's eyes widened for a moment, hoping that investigating did not mean fucking, especially if fucking involved channeling the spirit of another feisty blond that seems to get his jollies bullying his beloved Yuri.

"Oh don't look like that, Ulrich is there. See, supervision, mister-over-protective big-brother. Though, my regards are with you, with him laid up like that, well, don't bang his head into the headboards if you can avoid it."

"Why thank you for your concern, I'm sure Yuri would love that sentiment." Conrad said a bit bitterly, "However, as I seem to have some form of _self-restraint_ that won't be a problem for me." Conrad smirked carnally.

His eyes traced their edges as they stole a sideway glance at the figure back on the bed, his tongue raking the hind-side of his teeth, "We should reconvene tonight, midnight or one would probably be best, it gives you two… adequate time, and would allow me to tend to Yuri in the proper intervals."

"Alright then, we'll see you at one. For the record, you should have Greta visit her papa, I'm sure Shibuya would love it. Oh Conrad, do you play Mahjong?"

Conrad gave him a strange look, "Isn't that a board-game on Earth?"

"Yes. It is. Interesting how he knew about it too, isn't it? His rituals also seemed very similar to some sects of Shintoism, too. Funny, huh?" Ken suggested.

"How would that be possible?"

"And that would be the point of my research. He may be strong enough to astral-project, but to do that so far as from another dimension… seems we may get to go on a triple-date to Earth. Gunter and Gwendel would probably enjoy joining in on it, huh? Oh, and then you could tell mama the happy news, oh I'm sure she'd be elated. She might even help you plan the ceremony."

"…That or challenge me with a duel to the death." Conrad contemplated.

Ken smirked, "Oh, like she'd think of you like a cradle-robber. She'd be too busy drooling over her son's luck and future grandkids… Besides, big-brother Shori would be more likely to issue such a challenge, and he isn't any good with a sword, so you'd be able to take him out fine. Hmm, well, we have work to do, so I'll be going."

And with that, they went to their assignments.

TBC.


	2. Part 2 Neck Romancer

A/N: Thank you very, very much for all those who read and those who R&R, and CONvert to ConYuu, thanks to those who were there already, too! It really makes me glad to see it! Thank you! This one will be short, but the next one shouldn't be.

Necromancer -Part 2- Neck-Romancer, by Vanessa S. Quest

Yuri's eyes batted tiredly as he watched green on green features focus in with his left. "Ah, Gisela?" He smiled, his head still complaintive as she slid her hand from his shoulder.

"Heika, please get up now." She extended a hand to help hoist him up from his lying position.

Yuri's hand missed by overshooting to the left, he looked at her with embarrassment, trying again, with compensation in mind.

Her hand moved over to find his, snatching it and pulling. "How are you feeling, Heika? Are you hungry?"

Yuri blanched, "Don't mention food in front of me…" His hand covered his mouth, still feeling dizzy and nauseous. "Ne, where did Conrad go?"

She smiled, "Oh, asking for your fiancé so contently… lucky." Gisela smiled, for a moment losing herself to how she was behind closed doors with Julia, she blushed then covered her face, "Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean anything by that, Weller-kyou went to address the units. After all, with Big Chimeron trying to stir up trouble with border towns, it would make sense to heighten military presence and castle guard…" Gisela's fist clenched, "Those slackers need to pick it up or else I'll…" She looked back at Yuri, smiling innocently.

Yuri felt the cold sweat of fear and empathy for those that Gisela ruled over.

"Ah, I'm sure that everything will be fine. We'll look into it. I won't let my people, or anyone, suffer let alone needlessly." Yuri mentioned, his face focused for a moment, he rubbed his head, "Itai-itai-itai…"

He leaned back, tired, trying to go to sleep instinctually.

"Yuri, you're awake. That's great!" Conrad said, much to Gisela's joy, she had no real way to keep coaxing the maoh conscious.

Yuri smiled, expression changing from tired to happy with bags under the eyes, even if only one side showed it. "Oh! Conrad! You're back, I'm so glad. What did you find out about this necromancer guy?"

Conrad gave Gisela a tempered glance, not expecting it to hold much sway to the woman, but he presumed it got some of the message across. She had been gabbing a bit too freely with Yuri; she really did take after Gunter when it came to some things.

She smiled obediently, eyes closed as she bowed out, excusing herself. Leave the lovebirds, stir the war-hawks. Her crisp militant walk told many Mazoku with any acute training of the force on the way, even Yuri recognized the Sergeant-mode. Really, that seemed to parallel his own Maoh-mode as far as inspiring awe and terror to those under it.

Conrad came closer to the bed, sitting at the side, knowing instinctively that Yuri would soon take use of his shoulder as the teen slumped against him, eye half-lidded.

"So, tell me…"

"He's hit five other villages, with the same modus operandi. So far, he has killed twenty-seven. All of them were Chimeron soldiers." Conrad decided not to sugar-coat it.

"And the villagers are all okay?" Yuri asked, though Conrad could tell the youth was fuming about the loss of the others, even if they weren't _his_ men.

"Total casualties were fifty-nine villagers. All of which were caused by the invading forces."

"…What? You mean… he was doing that to save the villagers?"

Conrad nodded. "It seems so."

Yuri sprouted upright, looking at Conrad in upset, "You mean he thinks he's doing me a favor by killing people!" His eyes were watering, Conrad spotted matching rivulets, though one was choked by the absorptive gauze.

"…Yuri…"

"I know this isn't going to sound much like me… but flush out all of those men from Big Chimeron. I want them out of my country before anyone else has to die needlessly!" His voice was upset, shaken. Why, why would someone think he'd want killing? He hated that! It was disgusting, appalling, apprehensible, and every other synonym he could throw its way.

"I understand. Yuri, please calm down though. Getting worked up isn't good for you in this state." Conrad mentioned, nodding his head to his lover.

"Ah… oh, you're right. I apologize. But you understand, what I mean, don't you?" Conrad smiled at Yuri knowingly, of course he knew, it was Conrad after all. "Is there any idea where he is?"

"Ken and Wolfram are investigating that, currently."

Yuri touched his head, "I see." He leaned into Conrad's shoulder, eyes closed. He clocked out, just as quickly as when he transformed back from maoh-mode, to Conrad's astonishment, even earning Yuri a shocked set of blinking browns.

-)(--)(-

Ken stared down at several scrolls in complete disbelief, nothing. Nothing. Not one single word on any history of this. Not one.

Not _one_.

Ken sat back, displeased. "Ulrich, you do understand what this means, right?"

Ulrich bowed her head, "Yes. I'll begin preparations."

Wolfram looked at him, "Well I don't. What can you do if you don't know anything?"

Ken smiled, fixing his glasses, "It means we get to make history. Ulrich is going to have to help us search for the necromancer's signature."

"Through the dimensions? Like how she and you communicate?"

Ken nodded once.

"So you _admit_ to cheating on me with her!" Wolfram fumed.

"I don't admit to anything, you know that." Ken winked then squeezed his ass. Wolfram blushed, his temperament disarmed.

"Maybe I have to interrogate you further then!" Wolfram mentioned, looking around at the sparse room, the two of them alone as Murata smirked, glasses having a deviant shine.

The two threw their bodies into each other as Wolfram pulled Ken's glasses off, setting them to the side as their lips pressed together urgently, lips parting in synchrony with the other's as their tongues spilt into the friendly territories to explore. Ken's arms snaked around Wolfram's to reach for the blond's chest to undo his uniform buttons, the blond working on the same track as his unfastened and separated Ken's shirt.

As Wolfram finished, he began to pull Ken's shirt over and down his shoulders and arms, Ken mimicking the action on Wolfram, finally, with the shirts at both of their wrists they pulled back their hands, lips never parting except for needy gasps, to drop the clothing in heaps at their feet. Ken kicked it off to the side, along with the first of his two shoes.

His face followed Wolfram's downward direction as the blond knelt to dismount from his boots, the blond took the advance in taking off Ken's belt, but the black-haired wise-man quickly regained grounds when he pushed Wolfram to his back, working on his belt and pulling it lower past his ass.

Finally disrobed, the two continued to research, now on the subject of the other's body and the specific needs and requirements of said bit of flesh. Ken fished for his glasses, to look at the door.

Wolfram rolled over, on top of Ken, pinning his wrists and hips by his own hands and legs respectively. "She isn't coming you know."

"Oh darn, no rescue from this, sigh, lament, wail…" He bucked upward, "Moan."

Wolfram took that as an order as he let one slip.

-)(--)(-

Conrad noticed the wrinkled fabric and the way his brother's hair was tussled and decided that he'd stop taking in points after that. After all, they were both men and he knew damn well what those were signs of, especially with the bite-marks and glowing after-effects.

It probably was the better arrangement; nothing said they were together, just the sex. There was no vow or obligation, so Wolfram couldn't openly be jealous which meant he just had to continue to work for Ken or risk being left behind. That would keep Ken sane, and the rest of the castle, frankly.

Also, it was amusing enough, the way the maids referred to them as screw-bunnies. Conrad preferred the differentiation between that and his own betrothed status. It made it better to know who saw what done to whom.

He locked his eyes on the door to the king's chamber. Yuri was beyond that door, resting. In another hour Conrad would have to disrupt the slumber.

"So what do we know?"

"We have a date."

Wolfram slipped his hand into Ken's back pocket as Ken slipped both his arms into Wolfram's front pockets.

Conrad didn't really care to see how; to no great surprise, Ken had made his brother into the uke. Well, it did at least mean he hadn't channeled Shinou, yet, lest the positions be reversed.

"For…?" Conrad mentioned ambiguously, "Travel back to Earth?"

"To-ma-to!" Ken mentioned, "Yes. Ulrich found out where this is happening. Bob is going to help us with travel-plans. We'll have to travel to Kyoto." Ken smirked, "Mama will be happy, she'll get to dress us all in kimonos."

"…We really should wait until _after_ Yuri has healed. Don't you agree?"

"Absolutely. He was lucky his skull wasn't fractured. When we go, we should have Jose check just to make sure."

"I can't believe that wimp. He really is lousy with horses." Wolfram mentioned, concern in his voice. Conrad gave him a dirty look all the same.

"That aside, Ulrich will need at least seven days to set up the ritual."

"And what do we know about this necromancer, so far? Any solid leads?" Conrad mentioned, glancing at the door again. He really did want to get back to Yuri's side.

"We know that right now, he is in Kyoto, we are assuming that it is a male, but as whoever this is can project different images… I really don't know. I do know the signature and energy, though, so Shibuya and I should be able to recognize it upon 'seeing' it."

"So you'll know it when you feel it?" Conrad rolled his eyes, "That will make guarding him so easy, now won't it." He sighed, his own head panging at that.

"Don't worry. Whoever this is doesn't want to hurt him. Probably for ulterior motives, but still, so far he's been helpful. Think about it, we showed up there, if he hadn't been around, it would have been just the two of us versus a dozen soldiers."

"And he wouldn't have been cracked in the head." Conrad mentioned, keeping it all in perspective.

Ken shirked, "Well, I figured I'd try optimism. Oh well. We'll go convey this to Gunter and Gwendel, so go back to Shibuya for now."

Conrad nodded, returning to the room.

-TBC-


	3. Part 3 Necro Philiac

Yuri awoke with his single, left eye gazing ahead at the ceiling. He rubbed at the bandage over his right eye only to be chastised for it.

"Yuri-heika, you really shouldn't rub it."

In a groggy voice he mentioned, "Well one of us should have to… besides its Yuri. I don't have _heika_ in my name."

Conrad smirked. He meandered to the bed suavely, allowing one hand to trail up Yuri's right arm then neck, then cheek. Stopping at the edge of the bandage he leaned his face closer, "But of course, _Yuri_."

Yuri's breath hitched as Conrad's breath wisped across his cheek, Conrad tongued that border-line before letting it taste a line toward Yuri's ear. He bit the portion of his earlobe not covered by the bandage, then whispered, "Your breakfast is getting cold. You should eat it now, Yuri."

Yuri's face turned red as Conrad pulled back, back to his normal sweet demeanor. His mouth gaped, as he tried to comprehend or formulate a response.

"Shall I help you then?" Conrad mentioned, bemused at the youth's reaction.

And that had been day three.

-)(--)(-

He laid back against the bed, greatly frustrated. He was going stir-crazy.

How was a normal, healthy teenage boy supposed to stay still for so long? And though Conrad was being helpful, tending to him in romantic ways, he was pretty sure that was making it a little worse. No, not Conrad being around, and definitely not that he was being romantic. Gods no, he loved that.

It shocked him to realize he had become so in love with Conrad that merely seeing him was no longer enough, though. He wanted, no he had to touch him. As it were, the real reason he was going as insane as he was had been the realization that he didn't want Conrad to _stop_.

He felt sympathy for the wolf from red-riding hood, finally getting the sort of thoughts the beast had to have had when staring at little red, waiting to devour her. Yuri was not going to let Conrad stop at kisses again, today. No! If he had to, he'd pin Conrad down. Though, in all truths, he'd rather be the one pinned down.

Conrad per the norm knocked on the door to the chamber before entering. "Good morning Yuri."

Yuri glanced up and down Conrad, his eyes hungry and not for what was under that tray lid. "Good morning, _Conrad_." His voice was carnal, rumbling with a vibration that made Conrad's eyes quickly scan up to find his.

As those strong, earthy brown eyes caught onto Yuri's black eyes, he was searching, searching for something. He was searching for some reason for that sort of voice, was he groggy, or maybe it wasn't reason but response, Yuri didn't give a damn why he was looking though, he just knew what he wanted and using the powers of a maoh, he would use that authority he learned to carry in his eyes as he cast out a come-hither look that could pull satellites to the ground.

Conrad walked over toward Yuri, touching his head. "Are you feeling alright, Yuri?" Conrad mentioned.

For Yuri's part, he wasn't just stopping with the eyes, he grabbed Conrad's hand in one of his own, drawing it from his forehead to his lips, sucking on two of his fingers, pulling them out and snaking it behind him as he pulled Conrad on top of him with his other hand, kissing him.

Conrad seemed to be enjoying himself, continuing the kiss, deepening it as he let his tongue take over the work Yuri's had so aptly started, now exploring Yuri's mouth. It was a well-charted voyage, but one Conrad always took pleasure in.

His other hand guided around Yuri, he felt Yuri grind into him, trying to get closer, Conrad pulled back. "Your breakfast…"

"Can wait!" Yuri pulled him back down, Conrad cradled Yuri's head, Yuri's eyes spun the room as Conrad pulled him up only to dip him into a sitting position, allowing his own hands a new course to traverse, Yuri now seated side-saddled on his lap.

Yuri suddenly stopped cold. His eyes widened to signal Conrad.

Conrad pulled back, "Yuri?"

The brunette untangled his arms as Yuri did the same, standing up to approach the window in disbelief.

"…Yuri?" The older man approached, "What's wrong?"

"…Kohi…" He mentioned, three kohi approached, prattling their teeth as if trying so desperately to tell Yuri something. Yuri grabbed his robe and started to rush from the room, Conrad quick to follow, grabbing Yuri's wrist.

"Yuri! What's going on?" He mentioned, not allowing Yuri to head out before him.

Yuri stopped, shaking his head which he began to regret instantly, cradling his sore head in one hand. "…Sorry… sorry, the kohi, they need me, I have to go to them."

"I don't think that's advisable under the given circumstances." Gwendel mentioned from down the hallway, he was moving briskly toward the chamber, apparently ready to guard the maoh.

"And why is that!" Yuri offered in protest.

"Because the necromancer is able to control them at his own accord," Gwendel snapped.

Gunter approached from the opposite end of the corridor, holding a set of leather hard-bound books.

"They're looking for audience with their king, how can I just turn them away when they obviously need me!" Yuri started, his voice raised indignantly, only further reminding him how much his head hurt. He clutched the right side of his head, wincing an eye shut.

"By realizing you can't help _anyone_ like that." Gwendel chastised, he eyed his younger brother, waiting for him to come to his senses and talk his lover out of this round of idiocy. After all, Conrad did seem to be the only one who could.

Gwendel was forced to remember that Conrad was also the sort to agree to Yuri's foolish demands, even when he knew better, as Conrad opened his mouth.

"Come on Yuri, we should head to the tower then, so you can address more of them." Gwendel threw his hand in the air.

"Idiocy." He grumbled under his breath, aware that at least Conrad heard him if nothing else. He followed after them, knowing further protest was useless.

"Heika, Heika you shouldn't be out of bed yet! You're still not well…" Gunter mentioned, his books clattered to the ground as he began to swarm around Yuri, waving his arms in protest then giving Conrad stern looks, locking eyes with Gwendel, who agreed with him, then restarting the cycle. "Heika!"

Yuri grabbed at his head, rubbing away at the migraine, "Gunter! I'm right here, so please stop yelling…" He continued to progress further, Conrad taking one arm, using his other hand to support Yuri's shoulder as he guided him in the direction.

"…Yuri…"

"I know, I know but I can't just _ignore_ them Conrad."

Gunter's voice quieted. "Then why not allow us to bring one to council here, instead of sending you into a swarm of…"

"I'm _going_, now stop this." Yuri sighed, he felt like he was being a jerk, but he really did have to…

Everything started to get dark, he wondered if there were really that many kohi that they would transform into berserkers again. Though it wasn't truly a pleasant surprise, he realized as he started to drop toward the ground that he was the one blacking out, versus the sky's light.

Conrad, true to character, caught Yuri as he fainted. "Yuri!"

-)(--)(-

Yuri woke to the sight of Gisela giving him a stern look, upset that he had over-exerted himself.

Of course, she'd never _say_ such a thing, but she'd _think_ it. Loudly, if her eyes conveyed what Yuri presumed they did.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I know, bed rest for seven days. I know. I'm…"

"No you're not." Yuri looked up to see Ken, Murata was perhaps one of the few people who would openly challenge him, though as his friend he at least understood why he could change positions so easily. "Well, unless you're sorry you fainted before getting to speak with them. Then you are."

Yuri grimaced; Ken really was the smartest Mazoku around.

"Shibuya, they feel guilty for what's been happening." Ken shrugged his shoulders, "They don't know, themselves, which of them or when they'll be taken over."

Yuri's eyes saddened. "Gunter, can you set up audience with them, then? If I can't physically make it to them… I need to address them."

Gunter bowed, taking to the task given to him.

Sighing, Yuri turned to face Gisela, another problem to address. "Aha ha, I'm sorry, really! But its been six days already! Shouldn't I be 6/7ths better?"

Gisela approached Yuri, her glowing hand pressed to the side of Yuri's head as she continued to work on healing him. "But you are doing much better, you just aren't finished resting up. Pushing yourself will only make it take longer."

Yuri sighed, resigning himself to bed rest.

"Gisela, I don't think I can handle _more_ bed rest." Yuri whined as she made mentions of extra days, she gave him the full Sergeant treatment, his back straightened and his voice managed to give an affirmative, "Okay! Alright, what's another three days… aha ha, ha…" He sighed, shoulders slumped miserably.

-)(--)(-

Ulrich looked over a scroll inked with larger and smaller overlapping circles, crossed with intersecting lines and squares, magical symbols and beneath it geography of the temple grounds including markers of spiritual energy and elements.

"The preparations are set, Ulrich-sama." One of the shrine-maidens mentioned, bowing to the head priestess.

Three others approached, "The grounds have been cleared."

"And the clothing is ready."

"We've sent word to the castle that we will be ready for them upon arrival."

Ulrich nodded, her concentration evident as she focused upon an orb of energy, as she kept track of it.

Ken approached her, "Wow, you're amazing Ulrich, you've been able to suppress it from leaking in, hmm?"

She nodded. "He is very strong, his focus is remarkable, how anyone can focus that much spiritual energy… I truly would like to meet someone with such a driven psyche."

"Oh, don't say that, you'll make Shinou jealous." Ken teased, causing Ulrich to blush.

"How is Heika doing?" Ulrich asked, shifting back to the point.

Ken sighed, "He isn't 100-percent, actually, he's not even 60-percent but it's not as if we can wait forever. He should be fine on Earth though, and Jose has been contacted, so…"

Ulrich nodded in understanding. "So he should be alright."

Ken nodded. "He'll be fine. They should be arriving soon."

"I do feel bad for putting a strain on him in such a condition." Ulrich mentioned as Wolfram entered, the others still behind a few paces, Conrad helping Yuri from the carriage.

"Don't worry, Shibuya probably needs to do something, he's been cooped up in bed for days. So enviable, ne, Wolfram?"

Wolfram blushed then turned his nose up, mocking a cross expression. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Sure, sure, Wolfram, I could go for being lied up in bed for a week though." Ken shirked, wondering if the investment in sports drinks and vitamins would be advisable.

Yuri entered, looking pale as Gunter and Gwendel dismounted their horses. "You should rest, Heika, while Ulrich makes the final arrangements. Gwendel and I will check the supplies."

Yuri nodded once, trying to get focused for his own part in the ritual. Without Shinou doing this all the time, traveling between the worlds became a bit more of a hassle for Yuri.

Conrad rubbed Yuri's shoulders soothingly.

It took about twenty minutes to make the final preparations, but it was twenty minutes absolutely essential for Yuri to get his wind back, his pallor returning after the slight rest. He stood up, the group approaching the magical casting site, donning the necessary apparel to help ease the transition between the worlds.

Yuri took the first position closest to the watery pool. Raising his hands, eyes closed, he made the water glow an ethereal blue matching his pendent in shade. As he concentrated, the water rose into a sheet, babbling downward in a perpetual waterfall, sustained by a conveyance of upward-moving water due to that same glow.

"Alright, I'm ready… Ulrich?" As Ulrich concentrated, behind the wall was a transparent view of the small wading pool liner and the sliding glass door at the side-yard of the Shibuya residency.

Ulrich nodded, "Please proceed everyone."

Ken pushed Gwendel and Gunter through first, Wolfram stepped through with a chance to keep his dignity by not tripping in. Ken honked his ass to make sure that dignity was short-lived. Conrad looked at Yuri then walked to the wall, extending his hand to Yuri, Yuri dropped one hand into Conrad's.

The two walked through, the portal-way of water splashed to the fountain with nothing left to hold it up.

Ulrich dropped her own hands. "Now, we must prepare the tracking rituals."

The women nodded, half of the group already neatening the courtyard.

-)(--)(-

Shori gawked at the sudden crowd, from the lawn. His pink-breaded heart-shaped sandwich ignored as he viewed the forming audience. He glared as Jose merely smiled, enjoying his pink bunny-shaped sandwich and his friend's company. Shori's father smiled at the group, holding a tray of the cute sandwich delicatessens of bunny, kitty, heart and flower shapes.

Gwendel took one of the sandwiches, eyes watering at whether he were to eat the adorable thing or treasure it for always in the innate cuteness. Deciding it was better to merely eat it and hide his pleasure at the object, he found it to be a very sweet, tasty dessert sandwich.

"It's my wife's take on mochi." The elder Mazoku mentioned, smiling to the crowd. "Rice-flour bread dough and red-bean paste filling. She's so handy in the kitchen. I love you honey!" He mentioned as she wiped the flour at her ruffled white apron.

"Mou! They're here already!" She came rushing out, "Do any of them have wings this time?"

She got out of the door to view the group, "Oh darn."

"Not this time, either, honey. I'm sorry." He smiled patiently at his cute wife. The group turned to look back at the group as Conrad and Yuri exited.

Yuri collapsed into Conrad's waiting arms, panting.

The tray of pastries dropped to an ever-ready Jose as the Shibuya family noticed Yuri.

Jose moved the tray to the patio table.

"Yuri, I'm bringing you inside." Conrad mentioned before lifting Yuri into both of his arms.

The black-haired boy merely nodded once, skin clammy with sweat as well as water.

"Explain what's going on, _now_, friend of my little brother!" Shori bit, Ken raised his hands.

"I told you to have Jose here, didn't I? It isn't as bad as it seems. Well, kind of."

"_Kind of_?! Yuu-chan, are you alright Yuu-chan! Speak to your big brother!" he clutched Yuri's hands as if he were about to fall from the world of the living if he let go.

Yuri pulled his hand from Shori's, curling toward Conrad. "Could you put me down?"

Conrad nodded, lowering Yuri's legs, waiting for him to get his balance before his arm left that side. His other arm still wrapped around Yuri's shoulders, guiding his body toward the couch.

Yuri's hand moved to his head to rub at the sore side, his other hand still clutching the fabric covering Conrad's chest, "I'm fine Shori, so please don't yell. I'm going to lie down for a few minutes."

Jose smiled, "May I?" He asked Conrad, who consented with a slight bow to his head, Jose flanked Yuri's other side, assisting the black-haired young maoh indoors.

Upon getting him to the couch, he took out his medical bag, including his flashlight to check Yuri's eyes.

After what seemed like too long to Yuri, he swatted at the flashlight as it flooded into his right pupil, making the pounding in his head all the more painful.

"I'd like to take him in to the hospital to run some tests." He mentioned.

"My little Yuu-chan! What happened, you can tell mama!" And with that, _Jennifer_ Miko was beside Yuri, stroking his cheek the way any mother would to sooth their fretted child.

Conrad cleared his throat, "He was…"

Yuri pinched his arm, "Mom, I'm fine, really. I was kicked in the head by a horse, but they made sure to take care of me before I could come back." He smiled, "We have a few errands to run while we're here, so I don't want to be a bother."

Shori glared, "A horse? You were kicked in the head by a horse and you think you're okay? He could have a skull fracture!"

"That is a distinct possibility, yes." Jose mentioned, Conrad nodded with the thought also in mind.

Yuri gave Shori a dirty look, "Would you _please_ stop raising your voice Shori!"

Shori gaped a little, adding softly. "Call me big-brother." He approached Yuri, touching the right side of his face.

The younger of the two gave him an unimpressed look, glaring at annoyance at the over-protective form in front of him. "We need to go to Kyoto. Jose, did you bring the train tickets?" Yuri asked.

"Ah, yes, but don't you think you should go to the hospital first…"

"No!" Yuri stated with a flat authority.

"Yes!" Shori said with equally as much authority, "You can't do anything in that state."

"I can do more than enough, besides, with the others here, we can handle it. Time moves faster over in Shin Makoku and the longer we wait with whoever this is, the more people could die. I won't allow it!"

Shori slammed his fist, "You're being irrational!"

"No, I'm being responsible!" Yuri bit back, both brothers giving each other heated looks.

Ken smiled, "Shibuya's engaged to Conrad now, Mama."

Both Yuri and Shori's tempered glares chilled fifteen degrees, Shori shot a glance at Conrad, "I thought you were engaged to _that_ one." He pointed at Wolfram as if he were an object.

"He was, but now he's not." Wolfram mentioned as he crossed his arms, superiorly. "I like to think of it as an upgrade."

Yuri mumbled a strained, "Wolfram… that's not the point."

He glanced at his mother, her eyes were shooting hearts, and sparkles, "Really? Really Yuu-chan! That's great! Welcome to the family, Conrad! Oh you chose so wisely, that's my child!" She rushed up to Conrad with new-found rights to poke and prod him, testing his muscles, looking in at his angles as if imagining the wedding, and the grandchildren. "You make your mama proud and have lots of grandbabies with wings for me, ne, Yuu-chan?"

Yuri's eyes shot wide. "Mom! That's impossible…"

She turned her own tempered gaze at him, cheeks puffed up, "Nothing is impossible! Right, honey, we just lucked out with two _boys_ with no wings. That doesn't mean it can't happen, _right dear_! Tell them, tell them!"

"Aha ha, of course dear!" He smiled at his wife and gave his son an apologetic glance. He knew who cooked the meals therefore he also knew who had to be appeased.

Her smile returned to beaming, "Oh I can't wait. When's the date, Yuu-chan? When should I have the dresses by?"

Yuri's eyes shot wide with terror, "Conrad! Say something!"

"Ah, my mother is already seeing to the arrangements as to what will be worn. Though I'm sure she would love your assistance with the food and decorations." He smiled, also knowing how important it is to have an appeased mother-in-law.

Yuri paled. "You're supposed to be my heroic knight, not throwing me to dragons." He muttered in defeat. "Right, well, we have to go to Kyoto so…"

Shori blinked daftly, perhaps too distracted by the prospect of his kid brother marrying without his permission, to have caught what Yuri said. "I won't allow it! How can I allow my brother to marry someone so much older than him! He didn't even ask for my consent!"

Miko, perhaps ahead of the game with the thoughts of her lovely soon-to-be family in law and adorable Yuu-chan in kimonos already had sprinted to Shori's room, Yuuri's room, her storage area and husband's wardrobe before pouncing upon the six men with an array of fabric, wooden sandals and split-toe socks, even a sword, sheath and belt for Conrad from her Kendo days.

Yuri sweat-dropped as his mother 'helped' him get dressed, insistently putting his hair in pigtails as well as a rather feminine kimono.

This… reminded him of his childhood, he tried not to sigh, at least with all the fuss, no one would insist he went to the hospital just yet.

After finishing Yuri up, Miko bounded to the taller men, Ken and Wolfram themselves already dressed, probably wise to the 'treatment' they'd receive else-ways. Miko tied Gwendel's hair back as she squeed in delight, "You look just like an era-policeman. Oh you're so handsome like this!" Proud of her work in dressing Gwendel in the dark green-blue colored kimono with a dark grey sash matching dark grey socks, she bounced over to Gunter.

Gunter was in a soft lilac-colored kimono with a rich magenta-violet stitching of cranes, round bifocals on his nose and his hair twisted back leaving two long strands of bangs in front and Miko was convinced she made a thorough job making him look the role of a scholar, though he did refuse to wear the tapered hat. She tightened the solid magenta-violet sash around his waist, the white socks mimicked the contrast of his hair.

She pinched his cheek, "You look so smart dressed that way… mou… and you!" Ken gave her the thumbs-up, he and Wolfram in the less embarrassing traditional kimonos with a soft powder-blue and royal blue for Wolfram, and a deep scarlet and black for himself, each of course with matching sash and socks.

She smiled, in sheer delight at Conrad.

After all, this was her soon-to-be son-in-law, of course she had to take the most care of him, short of the care for her Yuri. "You two look like a proper bride and groom like that!" She blushed, hiding her lips with her two hands, fingers pressed together as if she was thanking a god for the inspiration. "See that, Shori, I told you Mama could make you look like a prince with that kimono!"

Shori just shook his head and glared at Conrad, in _his_ clothes, dating _his_ Yuu-chan, taking _his_ role to protect… Conrad smiled at him warmly, squinting his eyes together.

He really didn't give a damn.

Miko handed Conrad the kendo sword and belt to go over his near-black sash, the almost feather-white silk fabric with a very soft grey print of reeds were so close in shade, that in order to even see the print one would have to be inches away. His socks were white, as was the cord that corded the black sheaths to him, over the dark grey sash of course. She accessorized it with a black wrist-band and white strings wrapping it to him.

"Now, they won't let you walk around a fair with a traditional sword, but that is a wooden kendo sword, so they shouldn't mind it. It's made of bamboo so it's really strong too. I used that in competitions. That sword is the feared blade of Jennifer Miko…"

"Honey, their train leaves soon." Her husband cut in.

Conrad glanced at Yuri, he was beautiful in that. His kimono was composed of long flowing sleeves, not tied back like the others, the black-on-darker black print housed lotus blossoms and a waterscape of a bridge with people walking across, looking onto the lotus flowers below. He wore a white sash and black ribbon around it, and white socks, hair tied up in pigtails with two black hair-ties invisible to any _man's_ eyes. His blue pendant the only trace of color to the outfit, and though he looked noble, Conrad had to admit, he looked effeminate. Not like he'd mention that part, he instead whispered to Yuri, "You look beautiful."

"I look like a _girl_." Yuri sighed, in astonishment. "Jennifer Miko strikes again. Oi, thanks mom! We'll be back in a few days."

With that, they loaded into the car. "Kyoto is a four-hour train ride. When we get there, we should have plenty of time to look around. Really though, it's not like we needed to get dressed like this. She has us ready for a fair."

Ken smiled, "Ulrich has been tracking the signature for us, it actually is on some fair-grounds. This might actually help the foreigners blend in." He smirked.

"By making them look like tourists. Tourists who are very easy pickings to merchants," Yuri mentioned to Ken while eying Gunter and Gwendel, then lastly Wolfram. "Anyways, what's the game-plan? Check into the hotel then go investigate?"

Ken nodded, "We'll break up into three groups. Wolfram and I will search in one direction, Conrad and yourself in the other. Gwendel and Gunter can gather information with Jose, besides, they won't be able to search."

Gwendel held up a tortured device. "That… is not completely true."

Ken blinked, "Oh? Anissina came for a visit? Must have been while we were out, what does it do?"

Wolfram sighed. "I remember that one. It tracks maryoki."

"It has been fully charged and has a charge-life of two days, so it should hold some use to us."

Ken chuckled to himself, "Well, if you want to walk around _wearing_ it… go right on ahead." The thing had a pig-snout. He doubted Gwendel would have a problem with it, though, after all he had strange tastes… and, if Theme Parks could get away with selling that sort of crap, a foreigner walking around wearing it didn't seem too far out of place.

Besides, no one else would be the wiser for just how stupid he looked, no one who'd say anything at least. Shibuya was too nice, and he was too smart.

Shori glared at the shrinking car in the distance, realizing that Yuri had just gotten his way thanks to that annoying friend of his kid brother's. His eyes narrowed. Oh this would not do, not at all.

That, that annoyed him greatly, but how was he supposed to even comprehend his kid brother's engagement, a happy one at that! He turned to spot Jose, probably thinking something similar.

"He got away, didn't he?" Jose mentioned.

Shori nodded then grabbed the keys to Jose's rental. "But not for long, come on, we're going to Kyoto."

-TBC.-


	4. Part 4 Netherworld

Necromancer -Part 4- Netherworld

Gunter looked outside the window of the hotel suite, taking in the view of the landscape. It was startlingly beautiful view, in the distance were lights from a fair-ground, while closer to the foreground there was a shrine, Yuri explained it was a Shinto temple, the gateway to holy grounds.

Yuri rubbed his head trying to fight off both the fatigue and looming headache.

"We should head out to search now." Yuri mentioned while Ken nodded.

"Yes. It seems to be coming from that direction." Ken added as he pointed to the fairgrounds, just outside of the Shinto shrine. "That makes a little more sense; if this person is affiliated with a religious sect he might have more access to certain _types_ of information."

"And that same kind of focus," Yuri stretched his back, hoping the change in posture would somehow help, okay, so that was just grasping at straws but he was willing to try anything by this point! That train was loud. "Let's go, the sooner we get to the bottom of this the better."

Gwendel turned to look at the maoh, "Are you really going to go, in that condition?" He seemed a bit incredulous which only furthered Yuri's frustration.

"I didn't get dressed like this to wait in a hotel room." He groaned, "Though I wish I could hide instead of walk around dressed like… _this_." He shook his head, "No. No we're going, so let's go. We'll go out in three teams like Murata said."

Conrad looked up and down Yuri's form. "Yuri, are you certain you wouldn't like to rest for just a few more minutes?"

Yuri's eyes locked down on the ground, before he looked back up. "I just get the feeling that I can't wait that long, Conrad. We'll take it easy, okay? I promise, but we still have to go."

"Alright, Yuri, if you promise."

Yuri smiled at Conrad, in reassurance. With that, the others' words of protest dropped away. After all, how could they challenge it when Conrad was with him, that man would do everything in his power to protect the maoh.

-)(--)(-

The three sets divided upon the fairground and Shinto shrine. Gunter and Gwendel decided to investigate the holy shrine, maybe ask some of the priests for information on the subject. Ken had shrugged and decided sending the foreigners would probably get the 'tall tales' out of them, which chances are, would house the most truth.

Wolfram and he decided to head West upon the fairgrounds, which coincided with a lot of the rides and food-booths, Conrad and Yuri would thus go Eastward, which went with the shops and game-booths.

"Oi, Shibuya! Make sure Conrad wins you something nice!" Ken mentioned before splitting off. Yuri groaned.

"Murata, we're supposed to be investigating!" Yuri complained, Conrad merely smiled down at Yuri, his eyes squinted closed, the typical, dashing Conrad smile.

"If we play along, it will allow us to search easier, and make us appear less suspicious, Yuri. Besides, wouldn't it be more fun that way? We could make it into a date."

Yuri blushed, and the smitten Conrad did his best to try to stop the shameless amounts of come-on lines at that.

"D… Date? Really… we could…?" Yuri shook his head, "but we're on Earth and we're both guys."

Conrad merely held that confident smile that told Yuri he could make _any_thing work. Such as, in this instance, the fact that Yuri looked like a completely gorgeous woman, that they'd be in the clear, of course, he knew better than explaining how he could be just that confident.

"O…okay then, sure." Yuri smiled, "Well then, we should walk around and see if we spot anything suspicious."

-)(--)(-

Sighing, Yuri looked around, they had been walking for a good three hours with nothing. Not one lead, not one tingle, he didn't get it. Murata had been so sure that this necromancer would be here!

"Yuri, are you hungry?" Conrad mentioned, smiling softly at Yuri. It was cute to see how he could be so strangely serious, though Conrad had managed to keep the mood less caustic with some of the booth-games, Yuri had convinced Conrad to win Gwendel one of the cutesy styled plastic banks, Conrad upped the ante by winning Yuri a baseball cap for the Boston Red Socks by pitching baseballs at milk-jars.

The black-haired youth looked up at Conrad, he seemed drained. "Yeah… I am a bit, do you want to grab something over there?" Yuri pointed to a place across the way, it had a pull to it, maybe the cozy atmosphere, but whatever it was, the two headed toward it.

Upon entering, the two were seated in the empty place, a menu sat before them. "Why hello, and welcome to my establishment!"

A man in an indigo and grey striped kimono answered, his hair was a dark brown, probably dyed from what Yuri could see, his eyes were sharp and black.

"Such a handsome set of men gracing my small little shop, I'm sure you'll draw the women crowd. So, what may I get for you?"

Yuri blushed at being called handsome, after all, the entire time he had been wandering about he had been called anywhere from cute girl to sexy mama to classic-Japanese beauty, but not once had he been called male.

Conrad eyed the man, he didn't like his tone, and not because he was a possessive fiancé, no, that wasn't his style to be stifling. No, what he didn't like was that knowing tone, the same kind of condescendence that Ken was known for.

"Ah, what's the house special?" Yuri mentioned, handing back the menu.

"Coffees and baked goods are the game, I just brewed up my special blend of espresso, and I have some fresh pumpkin cake and banana bread. If you prefer teas, I can make up a pot of oolong or green."

"Ah, don't trouble yourself with that, espresso should be alright." Yuri mentioned, regretting that he'd have to have something as strong as that, not like he'd ever admit it to Conrad, it made him look like such a child, or woman.

"I'll bring it right out, then." He smiled, walking back into the kitchen. After a few moments he returned with the assorted tray, including a container of sugar and a pouring-pot.

Conrad eyed it suspiciously, espresso wasn't typically brewed that way. The man poured the glasses and sat them in front of the two, Conrad gave Yuri a look that told him to wait until he tasted it, Yuri gave him a strange look back as if not getting why Conrad was so suspicious, but allowed it.

After tasting it, he only noticed the strength of the brew, but no funny additives. He gave Yuri an apologetic look for keeping him from the food, but Yuri merely smiled sweetly back, then started to lace his drink with as much of the sugary powder he could slip in without looking like he was planning to chew the drink. That equated to three tablespoons. Yuri took a sip, his face scrunched up but he tried to play it cool all the same.

For his part, the man behind the counter brought out a canister of milk like it was second nature for the fluid. Yuri decided he'd just put in a splash and hope Conrad didn't think too poorly of him for it. Not like he would, but still. Conrad merely smiled at Yuri, assuring him.

He just couldn't get past how cute Yuri was at times.

The man began to clean the shop. "So, how much do we owe you…?" Yuri asked, now much more comfortable with food in his stomach.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I was about to close when you came in, the brew would have gone to waste."

"…But what about the cakes?" Yuri asked.

"Consider it nothing. Just seeing such two strapping men made it worth-while." He smiled, leaning on his hand as he scrubbed the counter.

Yuri felt a bit uneasy, he never felt at ease with people just hurling compliments at him, even with Conrad he wondered when the man would wake up from his dream and realize things for what they were.

"Ah, well, if you insist…" Yuri scratched the back of his head, "Thank you very much."

"No, thank you for your patronage," the owner mentioned before seeing them to the door, he locked it behind them.

"Well, what now?" Yuri asked Conrad, smiling at him, "Do you want to go on some rides? Well, that might have been backwards… but, have you ever been on a Ferris-wheel or a rollercoaster?"

Conrad shook his head, "No, but that sounds fun, shall we?"

Yuri smiled, "Yeah! Let's go on the Ferris-wheel first, the lines get longer at night for it. Because of the view when everything is lit up…" Yuri explained, Conrad went with him, measuring Yuri.

Inside the café, the owner glanced at the canister, "…He took that much? He won't be standing for long." He put away the glasses before leaving, himself.

-)(--)(-

Ken glared at nowhere in particular as he contemplated. "It doesn't make sense, with three groups we should have run across him by now." He leaned back in his chair, Wolfram gave him a curious look.

"Ulrich said it was here though, didn't she?"

Ken's eyes widened, realization dawning on him, "It's not one person! It's a collective effort!" He flopped forward, hand slamming on the table as he threw himself to his feet. "That's why it felt vaguely familiar here and there but there was nothing solid…" His face contorted with a sort of disappointment that he only thought of it then.

"We should find the others then." Wolfram added as the two took to their feet.

-)(--)(-

Yuri watched the fairground from atop the wheel, Conrad took in the view as well as Yuri, it warmed his heart to see Yuri acting more like his normal self. He was glad his head wasn't bothering him as much as it had been before.

Upon looking back over at Conrad, Yuri realized how dreamy-eyed he must have seemed, he blushed, then looked back to the park. "See that rollercoaster over there? The Eight-Headed Dragon, I bet you'd love that one."

"Of course, Yuri." Conrad continued to watch Yuri, "How is your head doing?"

Yuri groaned, "I really wish you wouldn't remind me about it." He let out an exacerbated sigh, "It isn't as bad as it was earlier, but it is a lot quieter just you… and me…" He came close to Conrad, running a hand up Conrad's wrist then arm.

Conrad captured Yuri's hand, drawing him in for a kiss. Yuri blushed before letting Conrad deepen it. As the wheel moved again, they decided to pull back, now nearing the ground. "So, let's hit the rollercoaster now!"

Conrad smiled softly as he followed Yuri to the next line.

Once the ride had started, Yuri realized how stupid this was to do to himself. One, Conrad wouldn't scream, he was insane to even think he'd outwardly react. Two, _he_ would which would either make him seem childish, needy, or pathetic to Conrad, and for three the extra kick to the head, was just that. The extra kick to the head, all this spinning was killing his head and making him feel umpteen times worse.

In fact, by the time they had gotten off, Yuri felt horrible. He swaggered from the ride, "Yuri!" Conrad put a hand on Yuri's back as he rubbed small concentric circles to sooth him, his other hand on Yuri's arm.

Yuri held his mouth and lurched over. He felt really faint and he was sure this had nothing to do with the ride so much as his headache. "I… I'm going to the bathroom! Don't follow me, I'll be back in ten minutes, tops!" Yuri mentioned as he pushed past Conrad.

Conrad looked at him in confusion, "Yuri…"

He let his hand drop to the side, he turned his attention to the bathroom then sighed. He decided giving Yuri a few moments would be alright, it gave himself a moment to let his stomach catch up with gravity and stop turning somersaults.

Yuri reached the restroom and bee-lined to the sink and mirror, splashing himself with cool water.

"Excuse me, little miss, you're in the _men_'_s_ room." One teenager mentioned, another whistled at the sight.

Yuri turned to give them a dark look, he pushed his voice to the lowest it would go to quip, "Who are you calling a girl?"

It would have sounded much more threatening if his eyes hadn't rolled up on him, let alone had his feet kept him upright. No, karma seemed to cherish him in the ways it liked to do horribly mean things to him, though, because karma was far too amused to let Yuri crash to the ground unconscious.

As one of the teenagers ran from the water closet, another approached, mentioning to his friend, "Take those stupid pigtails out. We can't have the maoh looking like _that_ in front of everyone, now can we?"

Ken and Wolfram spotted Conrad standing beside the rollercoaster waiting, "Conrad!"

"Conrad!"

Conrad looked at the two racing toward him, "Conrad! There you are! Where's Yuri?" Wolfram asked, Ken leaned forward to catch his breath as he panted.

"We figured it out. The reason we aren't finding anyone is because it isn't any _one_ person, it's a group!" Ken breathed out.

The brunette's eyes widened, "A group?"

"Yes. I just contacted Gunter, he found a record about object manipulation, too. I think we're dealing with Earth Mazoku. Mazoku who possess maryoki and are using that along with their practices."

"But why…?" Conrad asked he glanced at the time, "Something isn't right. Yuri should have been back by now. Excuse me."

Conrad brushed past the pair to move toward the restroom, the restroom that had a small crowd forming around it. "Excuse me, excuse me…" Conrad mentioned as he pressed through.

"You can't go in there." One man stated, refusing to be pushed past.

"I'm looking for someone." Conrad added, "I'm not trying to use it."

"Yeah, it doesn't matter. The paramedics have to pack up before anyone can go back in."

"Paramedics?" Conrad's eyes shot wide, concern laced in the chocolate browns, if anything had happened to Yuri he'd…

"Some kid collapsed."

"What?!" Conrad tried to smooth his voice over, "What happened?"

"I don't know more than that. They already took the kid to the first-aid station, though."

"And where is that?" Conrad asked, he was doing his damndest to keep from throwing the man to the wall and interrogate him further.

The man seemed confused at the other's zealous responses, he pointed toward the left, past the rides, across a small water-feature. "It's near the shrine."

Conrad let out a breath, "…Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem." Once he was sure Conrad was out of earshot he muttered, "Weird foreigner."

-)(--)(-

Yuri woke up, holding his head, he felt sick. A hand pressed a container to his.

"Here, drink this. You passed out, this should make you feel better."

Looking at the drink with foreign eyes, Yuri decided to take a sip, he winced, whatever that was tasted awful. So bad in fact, he had to vomit and did so, repeatedly.

"Good, good. I can't believe it, you're really impressive. That much could have taken down a bull." The man mentioned, Yuri's eyes finally focused in on it, they widened as he realized who he was seeing.

"You- you're the guy from the café!"

"Guilty." The man smirked.

Yuri collapsed backward, he felt too tired to particularly fight what was going on, though he thought poorly of having the lack of options. "So who are you? A kidnapper? A fan-boy? What?"

"I like to think of myself as a Mazoku, Heika."

Yuri's eyes went wide. "What …did you just say?"

He glanced around, seeing a small group form, as it filled in the numbers were becoming quite sizable. Yuri touched his head, it felt like it was buzzing, and not his headache. No, the energy in the room was buzzing.

"You're the necromancer… necromancers… what the…" He sat straight up; suddenly the thought of fighting his way out was becoming more and more appealing.

The man smiled, "Please rest, Heika. While we're sorry for resorting to such cheap tricks, we needed to get in touch with you."

His eyes narrowed. "You mentioned wanting my powers, I don't plan on helping you for any schemes… Now who's your ring leader?" His eyes looked fierce.

A teenager approached Yuri, "This is the Maoh? Is this really?"

Yuri blinked, he really was starting to wish he had just stayed home.

"He is. You can feel his power, can't you? Well, we should explain our plight to…"

"You should explain your ACTIONS!" Yuri demanded, "Why did you think coming to my kingdom to kill anyone would be acceptable, and then why you thought I'd do you a favor for it… You have a lot to answer for!"

"…Well obviously, we were stopping soldiers from killing our own kind."

Yuri's eyes widened. "…You're Mazoku?"

A collective group of five or so nodded, "Yes. We're Earth Mazoku. More specifically, we're Earth Mazoku who have maryoki, most of us have latent forms of telepathy, but a few of us have a very strong connection. Though none of us have elemental contracts, we've studied the ancient dark arts including necromancy."

"Yeah, that's how you controlled the kohi, because they're skeletons… but the mahjong tiles?"

"It gave us focal points. An ambition and a center, it makes channeling that much easier, especially with so many working as one."

Yuri touched his head, it made sense but didn't… "Why did you do it? Why would you kill someone…" Yuri mentioned, sadder now than before.

"Heika, we need your power." A new member of the group of five spoke. He seemed like the leader of the group.

Yuri glared at him, "And what exactly do you think you need it for?!" He spat vehemently, none too pleased about being used.

As the man was formulating his response, the doors to the shrine were thrust open, exposing five distinctly battle-ready auras.

Yuri spotted Conrad first then glared back at the man before him.

"We need your power to take us back to Shin Makoku."

Black eyes went wide, confused. He glanced around, the place had to be full of a thousand people! "…And just why… do you need that?"

"As he's said, we are Mazoku with maryoki, as such, we are not seen as normal here. We're feared, we're hated, and we do not belong. We want to go back to our homeland where we belong."

"So you think that killing people would make me want to let you loose onto my people?" Yuri shook his head in disbelief, "Or that you'd somehow be normal amongst them? Let me tell you something, even in Shin Makoku people are afraid of those who possess maryoki!"

"We want to form a village within your sovereignty so that we have somewhere we can call home." He mentioned. "Please, allow us to go home. We've asked Bob to consider, and he said it would only be something Shin Makoku's maoh could allow."

Yuri held his head, "This… isn't something I can just say yes to." After all, there was so much to think about…

Like the sudden presence of a knife to his throat, Yuri blinked daftly. This guy just didn't know when to quit. "I'm sorry, that is not an acceptable answer."

"What do you think you're doing?!" Yuri growled, the hand tightened around the fabric of his kimono at his shoulder, pinning him close. "…You do realize that if you kill me you won't be able to go there, anyways, don't you?"

The man nodded, "Yes. But I also know you'd rather the blade be on you then on your friends. Please forgive me, but I can't allow you to condemn my people, my tribe."

Yuri's eyes narrowed, "This isn't the way to go about getting my consideration. There are a lot of things I have to consider."

"No, there really isn't."

"Of course there is! Do you have any idea how much of a strain it is to suddenly have to feed and house a thousand people, let alone how to even transport you… you have no idea what goes into it and you think just by putting a knife to me you can fix it! Problems aren't _fixed_ with violence!" He knew he was glowing, though he couldn't help but feel passionate about this. "Now try to fix it by _thinking_ and put the knife down!"

The knife dropped, as did the man's head. "Please forgive my impertinence."

Yuri sighed, Conrad finally found his way through the crowd, rushing to Yuri's side, he punched the man across the face. "_Conrad_!" Yuri grabbed his own head, feeling horrible. "Conrad, stop. You, what's your name? You are the leader of this movement I presume, right?"

The man nodded, "I'm Kiyosuke."

"Kiyosuke… I'm Shibuya Yuri, I can't give you my decision right now. In two days we'll reconvene and I'll give you my answer then."

"But I--"

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. I'm sure you already know where we're staying, saying you have Bob's okay on this all, and I already told you, there are a lot of things that go into this! Now don't question me again."

"…Yes, Heika."

Yuri rubbed his head, "Come on, we're leaving."

Conrad nodded, helping Yuri to his feet, Conrad glared at Kiyosuke. He really did get off light for holding a blade to his fiancé. Too light as far as he was concerned, but he knew better than to press Yuri in moments like this.

-)(--)(-

Yuri slumped back into the bed, feeling exhausted. "Well, Gunter, Gwendel, Conrad, any ideas how we can manage that?"

Ken fixed his glasses, "You realize that even you have limits, right Shibuya?"

Yuri gave Ken a dirty look, "With this much of a headache realizing I'm the maoh is becoming difficult." Yuri's eyes blinked owlishly, "Eh… Gunter you didn't leave the balcony door open, did you?"

Gunter glanced to the door in question, "Of course not…"

And yet, there the door was, wide open.

Conrad drew the kendo blade, "Wolfram." He mentioned, his kid brother taking the prompt as to stand guard near Yuri.

Conrad pushed the curtain open to reveal nothing, instead the door was pushed open with a very, very angry looking Shori and goofy looking Jose in action pose.

"I've always wanted to storm in just like the heroes in my fighting anime!" Jose smiled, looking at Yuri. "Oi, you look a little green."

Yuri's eyes narrowed, "Shori… what are you doing here?"

Shori grabbed Yuri. "Bringing you to a hospital, and call me big-brother. Really Yuu-chan, it's not cute at all, the way you talk to me like that."

Yuri was pulled toward Shori, just to trip, collapsing into Shori's chest with a thump. Conrad reached his hand toward Yuri instinctively, he then dropped it knowing Shori had of course caught Yuri, even if he had man-handled him a bit. Conrad heaved out a sigh, Shori did have the right to want to protect his little brother; he understood it better than most.

"Shibuya, leave the details to us, Conrad why don't you go with him to the hospital?" Ken smiled at the brunette and the three raven-haired gentlemen at the door. "We'll be able to get in touch, and Yuri probably won't need to stay there for three days, so we have plenty of time, right Shibuya?"

Yuri waved his hand, "Alright, alright I get it." He spun his finger in the air, "Woo, round four of being prodded by healer-types. Great."

Conrad smiled at Yuri, glad the teen had his normal airs about him, even if he did seem fatigued for it all.

-TBC.-


	5. Part 5 Hurt Comfort Angst Deluxe!

A/N: For everyone reviewing, thank you so much! I'm so glad you all seem to be enjoying this so far! This one is going to be for recharging the medical-angst battery, and uh, for the record, yes the medical schtuff is accurate-ish. ; It helps to be a med-student, but if I've overwrote anything, I'm really sorry!

Necromancer -Part 5- Hurt-Comfort-Angst Deluxe! by Vanessa S. Quest

"No, absolutely _NOT_._ NO_!" Yuri shot off, breath hitching in his throat.

"I'm not asking you, Yuu-chan!" Shori crossed his arms sourly.

Yuri looked at Conrad with a terrified expression, to which the man gave him a sympathetic, supporting frown.

The doctor stood before them, glancing over Yuri's test results. "Amazing, you said this happened…"

"Ten days ago." Yuri added in a dead-pan tone.

"…You've had this for _ten days_, and you're even moving?" The doctor didn't even try to hide his disbelief, for starts, the teenager had an epidural hematoma, in other words not only had an artery ripped and bled out but it did so with enough blood to push on the side of the youth's head.

"Yeah, and I'm getting much better."

"What happened?" The doctor asked, jotting down notes.

"I was kicked in the head by a horse, its front leg." Yuri mentioned, exacerbated. This made it the ninth time he's had to relay the damn story.

"Who treated you without running any tests?!" The doctor seemed frustrated.

"He was in a rural area; they were keeping him on bed-rest for ten days before allowing him to travel and seek treatment at another facility." Conrad added, giving Yuri a chance to formulate his own back-up story might make it a bit worse.

"And just who are you to the patient?"

Conrad bit back at that, Shori jumped in, "I'm his older brother, the representation of our _parents_ in their absence."

Yuri glared at his older brother, he was going to try to pull authority over him even in this, "That's Conrad he's my fi--"

"--Family friend, looking after him until his parents have arrived." Conrad quickly interjected. "This was the nearest facility." He gave Yuri an apologetic look, but he also knew that Yuri openly blurting things like that out would make him look confused, insane, and simply bizarre. Conrad had promised himself not to impinge upon Yuri's standings when avoidable.

"I'm also a family friend, and a doctor- oh, but not the one who treated him." Jose smiled, pointing to his face.

Seeming pleased with that, the doctor continued. The doctor, a feisty female who could be Anissina's long-lost sister had she ever lost one and dyed her hair and eyes black, was content to poke at Yuri more, gathering as much information as she could, including a blood sample to check for coagulating factors. "It's simply amazing he didn't die from sheer blood-loss, but that clot is putting pressure on his brain, let alone if it somehow dislodges he could easily die. Horribly, painfully." She made note, while staring Yuri down as if grossly disappointed at the lack of common sense among the audience.

She smiled at Shori, knowing who she really had to sway, "So, if you'll just sign these, we'll start the surgical procedure to excise the clot…"

"No!" Yuri exclaimed, "No way, no how! I won't!"

"How old are you again?" She asked.

"…15, why?"

"So, if you'll just sign here…" She said, again addressing Shori.

Yuri's eyes widened. "Conrad! Do something!"

"Ahem, ah, what are the possible complications something like this would have? The recovery time? Risks? Versus, say, leaving it to heal on its own, is it something able to heal on its own?"

"Maybe in months, that horrible headache won't go away and you'd have to be on bed-rest." Her will felt like an elevator crushing down onto Yuri, causing his hands to tremble as she threatened him.

No, not with the bed rest, but the surgical procedure.

Jose had told him what kind of procedure that was, it was as simple as one two three. Three holes about one centimeter in diameter each through his skull, to suck out the clot, and if it was too big, cut out a piece of his skull to physically remove the clot, then seal it back up, chances are with a plate instead of the bone.

"Complications could include death or brain-damage, possibly even bleeding out, or infection, but that won't happen. I'm good, no. I'm _GREAT_. We won't be able to put him fully under, but we would numb him."

His heart-rate still hadn't reduced from hearing that, any of it really, and a panic-attack would be a nice way of putting it. Now, Yuri had no real fear of doctors, but when faced with the conscious decision of that… he couldn't just whistle sweetly and say 'Sure, shave my hair, peel back my scalp, and drill holes in my head, hey while you're at it can you vacuum there? You know, right about my brain? Thanks! Oh hey, let's top that by making sure I'm wide awake but can't move, that would be _SUPER_.'

"Shori if you do this I will never forgive you, I will never speak to you again, and I will burn every single possession from each and every fetish you have," Yuri's eyes were brimming with tears as he glared at him, "And I will never come back home to visit. I'll stay there, with Conrad; I'll send mom letters… I can do that."

Shori tilted his glasses; at least the threat seemed to faze him, a little. Shori sighed, "I'll have to discuss this with him and convince him if he's going to be this indignant. I can't just go and let him be terrorized."

With that, the doctor shrugged then walked outside, calling over her shoulder. "Recovery time would be two days in the hospital, a month on broad-spectrum antibiotics, and a follow-up visit so long as we don't have to crack him open."

Yuri's eyes shrank further, his heart couldn't take all this. This wasn't a hospital, it was a horror chamber! Conrad squeezed Yuri's hand.

"Yuri, it will be alright. No one is going to force you to do anything you don't want to--"

"Don't go making promises for me." Shori spat at Conrad before turning a sharp gaze on Yuri. His eyes softened as he saw the genuinely terrified look of his adorable kid brother, it really reminded him of when Yuri was a toddler. "Yuu-chan…"

Yuri wiped at his eyes, disgusted at himself for letting the water-works go. He didn't even know when he had started to cry, and his head… it was killing him! "I mean it, Shori! I'll never…"

"Yuu-chan, listen to me, don't you get it? You could easily die. And as active as you are, your risk for undergoing the procedure and for not, the answer is clear. Please get used to the idea, whether you threaten me or not, it is what is best for you."

Conrad's eyes darkened, not particularly liking Shori's blend of sympathy or concern. "Shori, come with me for a _word_."

Shori glared down at him, back, hardly afraid of this guy. "I don't have to do anything you say, you hold no authority over me, whatsoever."

He let out a sigh to calm himself before grabbing Shori's arm and pulling him into the water-closet.

Jose and Yuri looked at each other in concern and disbelief. Yuri wasn't sure what he should really do or expect in this sort of situation.

"It really sounds scary, doesn't it?" Jose mentioned to Yuri, putting his best physician-voice on.

"Mm!" Yuri agreed, tears already in his eyes again.

"You don't see it or feel it. Really, and she is good. Did you see how she was spinning her pen? She had very good coordination; she's probably the head surgeon. No rookies would be up at bat for something like this, either. Interns don't start for another month." He simpered though it came off goofy; he loved having inside trade info.

"I… can't just…" Yuri looked down, he was being weak, he knew it, he did! Honest he knew, but again, something like that… and then with the scars, and the bad hair-cut…

Jose touched the side of Yuri's head, five centimeters above his ear. "Here. They'd do it here, so your bangs could still cover it. Also, no one would see it."

Yuri shook his head, "…No…"

Jose shrugged, "Well, it is your decision; you are your own boss."

He let out a breath of relief, glad Jose was on his side. He was glad to have Conrad there too; it made it that much easier to take Shori out.

Conrad exited the room, Shori was livid, fuming as he glared at the man.

"I won't." Yuri started, "I'm going to check out, if that's what they want to do to me, I'd rather just leave now, there isn't anything they can do to…"

"Yuri, you're not leaving here tonight." Conrad said in a calm voice, "I won't make you do anything as extreme as that, but you should be observed. Your head has been hurting you all this time now."

Yuri looked down, then back up to Conrad, "But it's getting better! I couldn't see or hear ten days ago on my right side and now I can do that just fine!"

Shori's mouth gaped, "What?!"

The black-haired younger maoh winced, why was Shori doing this to him? Was he trying to see if he could make Yuri have an aneurism?

"We might as well stay, Yuri. We're here for a few days anyways, the others can take care of the arrangements, after all, you do plan on accommodating them, don't you?"

"…Yes, but…"

"Then what's the harm in waiting here to regain your strength, and rest where it will be quiet?" Conrad added which of course deflated any of Yuri's potential protests.

"…" Yuri sighed, "I can't argue with that kind of logic, can I?"

"I like to think you can't." Conrad smiled, his eyes closed as he consoled his defeated king.

Yuri became quiet, unsettled, as he watched the wall.

Shori watched Yuri, watched the door, the clock, Conrad, then Yuri again. "Visiting hours end soon, so head back to the hotel already." He gave Conrad a dirty look. "I am, after all, kin. And he can have one visitor- it isn't going to be you."

"Stop it Shori." Yuri stated in a calm indifference, someone had slipped him a Benadryl. "Don't be so inconsiderate."

"Inconsiderate? I'm your older brother, I love you and am worried sick about you. I can contact each and every one of your friends and family. Why don't you try to stop being so selfish and realize I care too much to not know what's going on!" Shori huffed.

"You don't make me feel--" Yuri shut his mouth, in time to spare hurt feelings, "Shori, I…" He sighed, if he said Shori didn't make him feel safe, because his opinion was as well known as it was… it would devastate his brother, but if he didn't, then Conrad would have to leave. Conrad, the one force that could anchor him, he didn't want to lose that support. Especially with Shori being just diabolical enough to force his way on Yuri even in his sleep and make him undergo the surgery.

"I want Conrad to stay." He flat-out said it, no elaboration, nor expulsion of Shori. "If you both can…"

Conrad glanced up and down Yuri, he seemed so fragile that Conrad didn't want to leave his side, but he could see the dilemma building. To have to choose a lover over family, he had made that decision all too recently, but he wouldn't look back.

"…" Yuri's mouth hung open, he couldn't be so outwardly cruel to his idiot of an older brother, even if he was being cruel to Yuri. After all, he knew why Shori was acting that way; it was because he was concerned for Yuri, in some twisted way. "You're right, I am being inconsiderate, Shori. I'm sorry, but I can't help but be selfish. This is scary."

"I know it is, Yuu-chan. You're not the only one concerned about it, but… to think you go off and _this_ happens to you… Like hell I can just leave you with him, all alone. Not when you're on Earth. They get to keep you all to themselves enough as is."

"And you have your own life, too. I'm not the only one, so please understand it's only natural. Everyone makes a world for themselves; some of us just get to do that a bit more literally than others." Yuri smiled at his brother, suggestively.

Conrad smiled at the two, Yuri was just so good at things like this, he wondered if the teenager even realized how capable he was, or how much of a people-person he really was. "Ah, I think there is a solution to this, we could just be quiet and well-behaved. I'm sure a nurse wouldn't separate us if we do so."

Yuri blushed, Conrad was right. He had the super-power of being so perfect no one could fault him for anything. He smiled, "Will you try it, Shori?"

-)(--)(-

He knew he was tossing and turning in his sleep, he was at least that aware, he could feel hands pressing down on him, murmurs, whispers, scalpels no- knives, and a swarm of kohi, his eyes shot open as he panted in a breath.

He grabbed his head.

Conrad's eye opened, and no sooner then he spotted Yuri in his condition was he at his side, holding his hand, the other hand raking Yuri's black bangs out of his eyes. "Yuri, are you alright?"

Black eyes blinked and winced shut as he tried to signal he had yet to find his voice, and no.

"Are you in pain?" Conrad asked though he meant to ask if Yuri was in _more_ pain than he had been accustomed to in the past ten days.

Yuri nodded five tight nods before presuming Conrad understood that he understood and was in fact feeling it.

"Just try to calm down, take some deep breaths," He poured Yuri a half-glass of water, which Yuri quickly knocked back.

"It hurts…" Yuri complained, quietly. He had the look of a kicked puppy.

"…Yuri…" Conrad kissed Yuri's hand. He knew that out of treating Yuri or not, treatment was the obvious choice. He also knew that terrorizing Yuri wouldn't be the way to do it, either. Yuri had to come to the decision himself, much like how the black-haired youth had to come upon his own legs to get Morgif. Had anyone pushed him into it, the child he was wouldn't have felt it was an accomplishment, he wouldn't have felt at ease, and the consequences of any of the actions would have been that much heavier for him.

Knowing this, he knew how he had to approach this problem, as well. "If it hurts, why don't you want to try the treatment? I never asked you properly for your reasons."

Yuri bowed his head, "She's going to just drill into me, and I have to be awake…" he imagined the horrible sound of the drill cutting through bone, his shoulders tensed as every horror movie he had ever been subjected to played back on him, terrifying him all the more. "And even if I survive… my hair and the scar… it'll ruin poor Gunter's image of me… everyone's. I'm already enough of a screw up… if I can't even look like a proper maoh…" Yuri's eyes showed that it wasn't just _Gunter_ he was worried about.

"I'll love you no matter what, as would all of your people, but I think you are over-exaggerating things. Besides, I'm sure Gwendel could knit you a hat to hide any bad-hair day." He smiled to reassure him, "And you aren't the type to die easy, so stop trying to kill yourself off on me. I plan on making you make good on this engagement."

Yuri smiled at Conrad, "R… Really? I mean… really?" He couldn't even manage a reasonable response, his head felt like it was using his skull for a trampoline.

"Yes."

"…Then, do you think it's a good idea to undergo the surgery?"

"I think what _you_ believe is more important. But yes, I do think it is the better course of actions, if you're asking for my input."

Yuri nodded once, "Alright. Please wake up Shori." He rolled his eyes, "I swear, he really should appreciate you more."

Conrad shrugged, he could see why he wouldn't; he probably felt over-shadowed by him, as Yuri said Conrad was _perfect_.

-)(--)(-

Yuri awoke inside the hospital room with a cast of sixteen concerned eyes. One black pair that seemed to make Gwendel have an extra nervous tick in his step, so he thought she looked like Anissina, too, huh?

He smiled as he took in the rest of the people. Gunter, Murata, Wolfram, Jose, Shori and Conrad flanked the bed, Shori and Conrad at either side.

"Good morning…" Yuri mentioned, he moved his hand up to touch the right side of his head, finally able to be pumped with enough pain-killers to numb an elephant. He could feel the soft gauze under his fingertips, which was about all of his head he could feel, his face housing just as much grogginess to it.

He closed his eyes, unaware that when he opened them it had been an hour later, the others sat up from their chairs, Conrad and Shori still flanking his bed, Ken playing cards with Gwendel, Gunter, Jose and Wolfram, holding quite a stock-pile of make-shift poker chips.

"Morning again, Shibuya." Ken chimed while he smiled at his friend. Yuri waved his hand at his wrist, making him look like a manikin being manipulated by a puppet-string.

"Why's everybody here?"

"To convey the report, obviously. Oi, Shibuya, your doctor was such a babe." He smirked, giving Wolfram a look, he loved to mess with the blond.

Yuri glanced around long enough to realize she wasn't there anymore. "Oh, okay… Huh?"

"Yuri, we've decided we aren't going to try it." Ken started, "Not for another month Earth-time."

That had Yuri aware, he shot up from the bed, sitting up at a ninety degree angle, though the pain was felt when he jarred those IVs full of lovely, beautiful, wonderful painkiller agents. "What?!"

"You're in no condition, and neither is Shin Makoku." Ken started.

"It would only take months of preparation in Shin Makoku, which would mean days here. No way, we aren't going to ask them to hold off that long, and I can't make Ulrich work so hard to hold off any of their powers if they get impatient…"

"And what would you have them do, walk there? You realize just how many one thousand people is, right? I've never seen that many brought over."

"I can do it." Yuri said, firmly.

"Yeah, in over one-hundred trips with lots of breaks in between. I told you, you have limits."

Yuri glared, "Murata, that's not a viable option. Think of another way. Besides, we could ask Bob and Shori to help, and you can use maryoki here too!"

"Shibuya, I'm telling you, one thousand is too many!"

"And I'm saying we can find a way!" He hissed, Conrad pressed on his shoulder.

"Yuri, please lay back down."

"If you're asking for my help, I won't take part, not with you like this."

Yuri began pulling out his IV, "If you won't then I'll do it by _myself_."

And with that, Conrad shoved Yuri back onto the bed in a lying position. Yuri winced, "Conrad… that hurt."

"Forgive me." He said with a stern voice, his eyes conveying that he was not in the mood for bullshit. "You are going to stay lying down to recover until your doctor comes back in here and gives you the okay, though. We'll discuss other options, so please do not be rash."

Yuri's shoulders slumped, "Ah… you're right. I'm sorry. I was going a bit overboard, forgive me Conrad?" Yuri smiled back up at Conrad, the brunette's hand loosened, giving off the aura of a supportive hand, instead.

He smiled back at his fiancé.

"Alright, alright. Really Shibuya, you can't take a joke at all. We have to wait until you're better though. Don't you go thinking that pushing yourself will do though, it has to be a genuine 100-percent! And Big-brother Shori and Conrad here can tell if you're faking, right?"

The two nodded in stereo, which unnerved Yuri a bit.

"Aha ha, ha… right. I get it, I get it. Okay, just get everything ready then. I'm going to go back to sleep."

"Good, that's your job until I say otherwise!" Ken mentioned, Gwendel and Gunter nodded as if both agreed.

-TBC.-


	6. Part 6 Necrotizing Factors

Necromancer -Part 6- Necrotizing Factors, by Vanessa S. Quest

Conrad's eyes opened at the faint sound of someone sneaking about, after they cascaded across the room's borders, doors and windows, they landed upon the lone figure in the bed, and his brother beside him in a chair. They cast back over the room with a bit more scrutiny.

Yuri stirred, then awoke, looking at Conrad strangely, "Conrad?"

He changed his face to a more pleasant version before smiling down at Yuri, "Yes Heika?"

The black-eyes glaring back in petty annoyance, framed by the black bangs peeking through white-bandages gave him a stern reprimand.

"Ah, sorry Yuri, force of habit."

His eyes relaxed to readdress the question, "…What is it?" Yuri glanced over the room casually, trying to spot what Conrad had been so concerned with. The way the brunette smiled back at him already told Yuri that his comment would be brushed off.

"I thought I heard something, it doesn't seem to be anything though. If you can, you should eat, otherwise, you are under orders to sleep."

Yuri smirked at Conrad, momentarily unaware of Shori, "Only if you…" Yuri puckered his lips suggestively; Conrad smiled at the invitation but looked conflicted otherwise.

"Only if he what? Whistles? I can whistle for you Yuu-chan." Shori said, deflating Yuri's buzzed mood.

Yuri's shoulders slid downward, "Why don't you go _home_ already, Shori?"

"Didn't you need big-brother's help for that portal?" He shot rhetorically at his brother. "Because I seem to recall that you do."

He sighed in defeat, he closed his eyes and smiled, one hand in the air, "I was kidding, kidding. How could I just send my brother away like that, right?" He opened his eyes, "But really, you shouldn't sleep on a chair like that it's bad for your posture."

"Oh, so you're more concerned for my posture than Conrad's?" He smirked, victoriously.

"…Conrad doesn't slouch in his sleep. He told me it was due to military training. Besides, he'd be allowed to lay down with…" Yuri turned pink as Shori turned red. Conrad didn't make any color-changing reactions but supposed he'd have blanched if it wasn't as entertaining as it were. After all, he knew he had the upper hand on Shori, to no end of the younger man's annoyance.

Yuri leaned back into the bed, heaving a sigh.

The three heard a loud banging noise, the kind of bang a metal chair makes when it falls over, amplified by letting it fall over ten stories before hitting anything.

Yuri's eyes widened, he sat upright, kicking his legs to the side of the bed about to stand, this time, Shori chose to pin Yuri, not liking how Conrad was so overly-familiar with touching his Yuu-chan, fiancé or no!

Conrad took hold of the kendo sword he had Jose sneak in before going to the door, "Yuri, Shori, wait here."

Shori nodded once, content to protect Yuri, and possibly lock Conrad out. The brunette peeked out of the door and down the hall, seeing no rational source for the noise.

The sound came again, this time from what seemed like the walls themselves. Yuri touched his head not finding the sound a soothing, calming sound that a hospital should be full of.

His eyes widened, "Conrad- what day is it?"

"…I don't really see how that matters, Yuu-chan!" Shori responded.

"Day two of their count-down." Conrad mentioned, peeved at the implication.

Yuri nodded, "Right, then." He got up from the bed, both Shori and Conrad giving him a strained look. Yuri grabbed Shori's cell phone. "I have to go outside, I'll be…"

"Like hell you do. Get back in bed, you have to call that annoying Murata, right? I'll do it." Shori said, angry about the situation.

"Ah, thanks Shori. Ask him what…"

"The details as to the arrangements, yes, yes I know." Shori waved his hand at his brother, acting like any natural older brother did- annoyed at his own sibling's foolishness.

Yuri looked back to Conrad once Shori left, "…Something doesn't feel right Conrad." He started off the bat.

After hearing a noise at the door, he turned to face it in time to see a man approaching.

Yuri's eyebrow rose, "Uh, excuse me… this isn't your room, excuse me…"

The man seemed oblivious as he approached the bed, Yuri's eyes widened, as did his nostrils. Conrad grabbed the kendo-blade.

"…Corpse…" Yuri noticed the tag on the foot indicating the name of the deceased.

The elderly man gave Yuri an eerie smile, the sort that was half-vacant like a person on a bit too much morphine, Yuri could count the teeth, inside the mouth he spotted the tile poking at the throat-end of his tongue.

Yuri's eyes wavered between outraged and revolted.

"Yuri! Stop it, now!" Conrad called over his shoulder though Yuri wasn't entirely sure why, or was unaware until his charm had elevated enough off of his chest to be eye-level and glowing.

Yuri's eyes focused as he shook his head, and Conrad watched as they focused how they transformed to slits. The tile at first was absorbed in blue light before being ejected, leaving the body to collapse once again lifeless. Yuri shook his head, his pupils returning to normal.

Taking in a huff of air, he grabbed the tile as it rested, suspended in air. "Messenger. What the…"

Conrad's ear perked first as the shuffling sounds, then the sound of a large clash, he rushed the door in time to see Shori summoning a water shield, pushing back a range of dead people to dead pets, goldfish, dogs, cats, rats, birds… even the bones of meals past.

"What is going _on_?!" Shori demanded indignantly.

Yuri forced himself out of the bed before entering the hallway, he drew up his palm, the palm glowing incandescent blues, then each member of the make-shift army were spotted with blue spheres, some spheres surrounding papers, in others, tiles, before Yuri turned his palm skyward then raised it, pulling the spheres with it, he leaned backward knowing Conrad would be there to help him keep to his feet.

The bodies dropped. He looked at the square pieces of marble, reading the assortment. He tightened his grip on the tiles before entering his room to grab a robe and slippers, pulling out his IV of happy-pain-killers that had to go away, apparently.

"Yuri… _YURI_!" Shori demanded, grabbing Yuri's shoulder and shaking him once. "Where do you think you're going like this?"

"To stop it, of course." Yuri gave Shori a wary look, "I'm starting to wonder if Bob really did agree to this."

"…Wait, you mean this has something to do with what your friend was talking about?"

"Yes. The necromancers are acting in a group using an immense level of psychic energy trying to open a gate to Shin Makoku. They want to go home, but they really are being impatient. And irrational, really now… I'm supposed to meet them later today, for them to already act like this, like I was blowing them off or something…" He sighed. "They really need to stop using indirect methods and just _talk_ about it."

"So glad you agree."

Yuri turned to see someone at the end of the hallway approach him, holding an assortment of talismans, surrounded by a swirl of psychedelic colors surrounding the summoner. It reminded him of his own maryoki, though it really looked like small bits of so many people's maryoki that it became a conglomerate aura.

"Kiyosuke?" He tried to see the face, though it was hidden.

"Indirect methods won't do at all, when we finally have an unlimited power-source."

Yuri cocked his head to the side then pointed at himself, "You can't possibly mean me?"

"Oh, but we do. We said we'd have your power, didn't we?"

Yuri's eyes narrowed, "Now just hold on one minute! Don't take that kind of--"

His lungs burnt as the breath was knocked out of him, as the aura surrounded him he stumbled backward, collapsing into Conrad's chest before he could take control of his own form and force up a shield of his own aura.

Shori looked on at his brother in horror, Yuri's eyes were shaded over, mouth slightly parted as his breathing mimicked a panicked rabbit, fast, shallow and strained. Conrad's eyes went large then narrow, he laid Yuri to the side then drew the wooden blade.

"What are you doing to him?" Conrad's voice was more demanding then anything.

"If the maoh will not do it willingly, we can merely summon his soul and control that. After all, it is better if we are direct."

Conrad's eye ticked. "Shori, stay near his side, summon a barrier!" The order was one Shori was actually happy to follow as he launched into action, raising up a powerful, commanding aura.

Conrad launched himself into an attack, striking at the auras.

Shori held up one arm to form a blue barrier, surrounding the Shibuya brothers, the other hand touching Yuri's shoulder as he looked at his brother, tapping him. "Yuri, Yuri snap out of it!"

He watched as Yuri's eyes fluttered rapidly as eyelids alternated from opened and closed positions.

Striking the wooden blade down for the hundredth swipe, Conrad knew this was getting him near-nowhere. He could see the energy tapering downward but not nearly enough for him to claim it was at all due to his own contributions.

"YURI!" Shori let out a shocked sound as his brother's body rose from the ground, his necklace hovered though it kept close to his chest shielding what looked to be a forming white orb.

To the mutual surprise of everyone in the hallway, Murata raced forward from outside of the hospital. As he entered he drew up one arm, his hand pressed at a ninety degree angle to his wrist, his thumb, pointer and middle finger flush to the palm, his ring and little fingers folder downward, his own yellow glow illuminating his half of the hallway as he rushed toward Shori.

"Conrad! The tiles, destroy the tiles! Shori, the paper! Hurry, hurry, _hurry_!" Murata soon came upon Yuri, scouring him for any of the aforementioned as he monitored Yuri's status.

His black eyes widened when he saw the white orb momentarily fuse with the blue pendant before Yuri's own body went limp. Yuri's eyes shot open, completely white before he stood.

"Not good…" Ken muttered as the multicolor dream-coat rushed from the one body toward Yuri's. Thinking quickly, Ken grabbed the necklace, pulling it from Yuri.

A fierce blue aura shot Shori and Murata back, Conrad forced himself to remain unmoved by the volatile energy, though he was unable to advance more than a pace. Ken heard the sound of shuffling mahjong tiles as Yuri walked out of the hospital among the corridor littered with recycled corpses, he cast his eyes over to see what it said now.

His eyes darkened to a deeper shade of black, why did he only seem to mingle with people with crappy senses of humor? "Possession of Power."

Conrad slammed his fist into the wall after Yuri just up and waltzed out, "Conrad, we still have him…" Murata began, "They don't have everything they want, we still have his soul." He held up the charm, "Julia must have figured it out, she evacuated them into _this_."

He tossed Conrad the necklace, knowing who was rightfully left to watch over that specific soul. "Now let's figure out just why they did something like that. Older brother of my friend, shall we go track that maryoki?"

The ominous black cloud that was Shori gave off his own pensive fumes, "Yes. Do you have any idea of how we stop that?"

"Not a clue, not yet." Ken said as smoothly as if this was a soccer game and someone had asked who he thought would win at half-time. "Conrad, go with Jose to see Bob, I'm sure he's nearby."

"They have my brother, I am not going to forgive them for this. If anything happens to him…" Shori started, heading out the door to track them.

"They can't and won't do anything. They want the Maoh's power, but frankly, they just stole a car with no gas or key. They aren't getting far." Murata said to a uniform of displeased people for the analogy.

Conrad's hand tightened protectively around the chain before putting the blue stone on, tucking it under his own apparel. They were not going to get away with something like this. He wouldn't allow it. His fingertips gently touched the stone as if to comfort the soul occupant.

-)(--)(-

Standing in military attention, Yuri stared with blank eyes into nothingness before the crowd.

For their part, their looks were equally vacant save for a select few. The room was swimming with a tinted energy, the 'super aura' instead of the array of colors had taken on a particular shade of scarlet as if the energy was focusing and going berserk at the same time.

The scarlet enveloped Yuri, though it was kept at bay by a translucent film of blue-white light that surrounded his skin.

"This should trigger it, the maoh form should be drawn by the chaos and crimson." One of the collective voices mentioned.

"True, but something is off. The divination isn't picking up on that energy."

"But it's still there. He's right there, it should be working."

Murata fixed his glasses, leave it to necromancers to not get the most elemental of workings. They never really did get _the living_, this sort. It was amusing to see them try to figure out how he was protecting himself, once they realized they didn't have his soul, he wondered how they'd rationalize Yuri's protective aura, probably as spiritual imprinting.

He kept the scoff under wraps, still feeding his own maryoki to Shori, as he in turn, maintained his shield over Yuri.

Ken focused his thoughts to contact Bob, conferring with the Earth's Maoh in short bursts, after all, this was a bit more maryoki then he was accustom to using, he really did try to avoid it. He was a lover not a fighter.

"_Keep it up_,_ big-brother of my friend_." Ken prompted Shori telepathically, cheering him on in his own way.

"_This can't go on forever_. _We have to think of something_."

"_It would be so much easier if we knew what their motives really were_."

Shori nodded once, "_Doesn't change that we don't know them_, _though_."

Ken smirked at Shori, he had a knack for being conniving; Ken had to admit that much.

"We'll have to try something else, stop wasting time summoning kohi. If that won't draw him out, we'll just have to try another tactic."

"And just what is that?" Another voice mentioned, simultaneously, the scarlet energy began to transform back into the bleed of hundreds of different colors and shades.

"For starters, we'll get all the parts." An additional voice chimed in, a member of the crowd came forward, approaching Yuri's body. "This isn't his aura. _His_ is empty."

Three sets of eyes looked around. "Then we can't just channel him, damn. This may have been detrimental."

"We don't need to focus on that, we need to focus on how to fix it."

"We could use him as a bargaining chip with Bob. If he does not open a portal threaten to kill him."

One of them sighed, "No. Out of the question, we will not make ourselves into enemy-of-state. This was already too far. Really, how do we expect for compliance now?"

"They already decided against compliance, anyways!" The second individual sighed, blood collecting at the side of his mouth. "We should think of something quick, we're running out of time. We've lost three more today."

A female held a paper charm to her lips, "Well, we could always find his soul." She folded a piece of paper with the word find scribed with a special blend of ink.

"Alright, we will attempt to retrieve him once more. And if he refuses to do it voluntarily…"

"We manipulate him physically and don't reattach his soul until after we arrive."

Ken's eyebrow shot up. "_Shori I think I see what's happening_."

-)(--)(-

Bob looked at Conrad and the others, each expressing their dismay in ways unique to them. Gunter was blabbering up sobs and "Oh Heika…" left and right.

Wolfram had a fretted look but masked it with calling Yuri a stupid wimp for getting caught. Meanwhile, Gwendel's hands knotted and unknotted as if he were imagining a set of needles in his hands, even Jose looked bummed.

Conrad, though, that was a dark mix that sang of one sole duty which was to rectify the situation at any cost.

"I should explain the situation, now that everyone is here." Bob began, he pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose. "The people who have Yuri's body are Mazoku. Mazoku with the ability to use maryoki but do not have a contract with an element. Most of them also express psychic powers, ESP, telekinetics, and telepathy among others. As you know, on Earth very few people can use maryoki, there is no way to set up a contract with the elements unless you are a maoh, or the successor to the throne. That said, something you probably do not know is this- if you use your maryoki, with no spiritual body and no source to replenish, it only has one energy source."

Conrad glanced to Gwendel then Gunter.

"So they're dying." Gunter stated as if to test his assertion.

Bob nodded, "Though most of it is by their own doing, by pushing themselves to use it. It appears that ever since the box was moved, a stabilizing force that had kept their own powers at bay was removed. Unable to control the release of the power themselves, dozens have died. This faction, though it is a very small percentage of Earth Mazoku, has a population of roughly one thousand known. I had informed them that I would not make such a request of Shin Makoku's Maoh, because of the sheer impossibility of it, but that I would not step in their way in contacting Yuri. I did not anticipate such a course of action, I do apologize. I should have anticipated their own desperation."

"Why they are doing what they are doing is indifferent to me. Do you know where they would have taken him?" Conrad asked in a flat tone, "And how to stop them?"

Bob sighed, "Unfortunately, these are people fighting for their lives. That sort of desperation is not easy to stop. I believe they may have even gone berserk themselves, by this point."

Ken mentioned to Bob psychically, "_The only person who can stop them is Shibuya Yuri_. _However_, _in his current state_,_ he wouldn't be able to grant their requests no matter how much he would want to_. _It would kill him_."

Bob nodded to no one, "Has his eminence said something?" Gunter tested.

"Yes. I know where they currently are."

"Then we should go to them." Gwendel said, now fitted with a proper sword, much like his younger brother.

Conrad's fist shook angrily, "We can't be that direct. Not with Yuri in this state."

"What are you talking about Weller-kyuu!" Wolfram berated not understanding how Yuri's fiancé of all people could say to just leave him like that.

"Because if I go, if Yuri revives, he will try to help him and it would frankly kill him. I'm not the only one who sees that."

Wolfram quieted before shaking his own head, "But that hardly stops the rest of us from going."

"If anything happens to his body, how likely do you think his recovery is? We have to have a plan before we go to them." Gwendel stated in an authoritative manner. Conrad nodded once.

He touched the blue pendant gently as if he were petting Yuri's sleeping face, he smiled softly, "Yuri would probably be angry that we're plotting this out instead of letting him just do as he pleases. Sorry, Yuri."

All of the eyes in the room cast downward, as if understanding that dilemma and Conrad's particular predicament.

Wolfram spoke up once more, "I say we go, reclaim his body, get out and revive him. We just can't give him enough of an opportunity to make any stupid decisions." He paused, "The timing will be pretty close." He sighed, imagining how the first thing Yuri would do upon awakening would most likely be to be overly empathetic and stupid.

Conrad rubbed his brow, "You said you believe they are going berserk themselves?" He questioned Bob, who nodded once. "…Yuri's specialty _is_ in calming situations. We just can not allow him to use his own maryoki. Do we have a consensus?" His eyes cast about, everyone in the room seemed to accept it, Bob nodded twice.

"Your friend also consents to the idea. Though, Shori will not." He smiled, fondly, "But then that wouldn't be his way."

"Alright, then let's hurry. Jose, please direct us there."

-TBC.-


	7. Part 7 Dead to Me AN

It felt like a dream, the strange sensation over his whole being, like he was enveloped in the warmth of sunlight, that same feeling he'd get when he fell asleep at his desk when the light would peek through the glass window pane.

Something panged at that, the thought of having work to do, and having not done it. Something important no less! Yuri tried to focus, as if realization was the first step to awareness, and thus consciousness.

Jose stood at the door, ready to kick it open.

"Remember the plan, we secure Yuri first. Help the others once we withdraw with Yuri and meet at the car."

The group nodded, Jose kicked open the door holding his arms up in an exaggerated defensive pose with more holes in it than cheese from Switzerland.

Conrad felt the charm in his pocket; it felt warmer now reacting to the presence in the room.

The room was a bit of a horror in its own right, with several bloodied bodies on the floor as if they were too weak to even keep on their feet at this point. Wolfram put his hand over his mouth, it looked like a war zone.

Coolly, Conrad's eyes flicked across the room until spotting what he needed to see, upon landing on Yuri, his legs were already moving, rapidly. The aura was nothing short of intense, five people were hovering around the body in a sort of fascination with it, one of which was a woman holding a shikigami, perched on her finger just like any real bird would do with its beloved owner.

"We knew you'd be here." She smirked, turning into a fighting position. "You did make it that much easier for us though. Now hand it over."

Conrad didn't seem too concerned as he increased the speed in his step, shoving into her with his shoulder he rolled thus changing his position and hers, he himself now closer to Yuri than she was.

Shori stood up, indignant that his efforts were rewarded by idiots walking into what to him seemed like such an obvious trap. He brought up a shield to push between his brother and the five necromancers. Conrad put his hand on Yuri's shoulder.

"Yuri!"

For a moment, he could see in those black orbs a sign of recognition that he wasn't sure if he was imagining or not. He took the stone from his pocket and put it around his neck, donning the necklace.

As the necklace fell against Yuri's chest, Conrad tried again.

"Yuri…"

Blinking, Yuri's black eyes quickly took in Conrad's sight. "Oh, good morning Conrad…" He shook his head, hand touching the side of his head, "There was something important I was doing… before I fell asleep, wasn't there?" Yuri asked himself, before the rest of the room came to view. His eyes shot wide, "What is going on here?!"

Yuri's hand went to his mouth. He could see a room littered with bodies, a room he didn't remember being in before he had gone to sleep, his eyes darted back to Conrad, before pushing past him, finally recalling what had been going on right before he had fallen asleep.

He attempted weakly to push past Conrad to take in more of a view, though Conrad hardly allowed that. "Yuri, we have to get you out of here."

"With things this bad?! How can I just leave a situation like this…"

Conrad's firm hands on Yuri's arms indicated it would be by putting right foot in front of left foot then left foot in front of right foot, repeating until out of the door.

Dark eyes focused on brown, "What is happening?"

"We aren't letting you take him. We need him." Two men on the stage took out a jar of powder, one of which dipped his fingers inside, as he pulled out the powder, chanting, a wind took hold of the powder moving in a tactile fashion toward Yuri. The other man continued to chant, blood pooling at the corners of his nostrils.

Yuri put his hands out defensively, a powerful blue aura blocking the ravenous, repetitive attacks.

"Why are you attacking me? Don't you realize this is just making everything take longer?"

"You mean your escape? We won't let you leave! We need your help and we won't let you abandon us! We thought you were merciful, how could you just discard us like this!"

Yuri's eyebrows furrowed, "When did I ever abandon anyone? We've been trying to figure out where to house you, the others have been preparing the rituals necessary in Shin Makoku to open up a portal…"

"You're lying! Our spies reported what your true ambitions, how your advisors said to forget it."

Conrad turned to face the man speaking, his own aura was becoming darker, gripping several paper charms as he began to summon something. To Conrad's surprise, nothing happened, beside an increased nosebleed. He pressed closer.

Drawing his sword, Conrad realized something did happen, when the man attacked he possessed a greater physical strength than what was natural for him.

"Conrad!" Yuri's hand pressed to his head, gods he was exhausted, he touched Conrad's forearm, using him to steady his own weight before stepping closer to the man. "There's something wrong with him… he isn't… right." Yuri reached his hand towards the man.

Conrad again kept a physical barrier, pushing Yuri behind him, "Yuri please stand aside. They have gone berserk with their own powers and desperation. They might try something to endanger you, foolishly."

Yuri shook his head, "No. Conrad, stand down. You said you wanted to be direct, then tell me what is happening!"

Another man approached, this one looked like Kiyosuke, beside him stood two others, including the woman holding the shikigami and a woman with black hair that looked frightfully similar to Anissina.

Yuri's eyes widened before narrowing again, "What is happening to you? Why are you acting in such desperation?"

"Because we're dying." He looked at the man standing before Yuri and Conrad, "We're down to half of our population."

"…That's impossible, there's still a thousand people here!" Wolfram spat out.

"We're necromancers, you don't think we'd be smart enough to attach our own souls to ourselves? The problem is, that only lasts until the maryoki is truly on empty, then we can't even keep attached to our own bodies." He looked to the corner.

"We've lost ten more since this morning." The female doctor mentioned. "Our population is down to a little more than 600. As far as actual head-count of people standing, we're at 970."

Yuri's eyes widened. "What's killing you?"

"Their own maryoki. The more they use it the faster they die, but the more they use it the more intoxicated they become, the less rational, the more they go berserk." Ken fixed his glasses, he looked winded though carried himself well.

"Most of them refuse to stop, all we have to latch on is hope that you'll open the portal before we all die." Kiyosuke added.

"Then have your people stand down! Make them stop." Yuri's voice was a hard and authoritative voice, one that sent shivers down the spines of anyone within a fifteen foot radius.

"I told you, we can't just get through to…" Kiyosuke watched as Yuri's body emitted a calming blue, too fascinated to turn away, everyone in the crowd seemed to be taken in the same way.

Conrad quickly grabbed Yuri's shoulder. "Yuri, please stop this, don't over-exert yourself further Yuri. Yuri-- please!"

Yuri shook his head to clear the fog, he had hardly realized he had started to use maryoki, but he felt the after-effects. His legs felt as solid as jelly and as light as bags of cement. He swayed, his weight giving out, sending him toppling into Conrad's arms.

Conrad caught Yuri underneath his arms, the teenager groaned sleepily. "We really are thinking of how to do this, until I can open that portal I forbid you from using maryoki. Please just be patient, I'm not so powerful as to be able to do that at the drop of the hat. I don't even know if I'm powerful enough to open the portal that size, but I'm trying! Now stop being counterproductive, I know your dilemma so I'll try to speed this up, so don't rush me more. Understand?"

Kiyosuke and the others nodded.

"It might have to be staggered, and if it is, I'm sorry, now make sure you get ready and only bring absolutely essential things like clothing, food, some pictures, blankets, but only what you can carry through yourselves. No furniture, no electronics, okay? The others will contact you in a few days so please make your own preparations until such time."

The crowd nodded.

"..." He looked at Conrad quietly adding to him, "I'm going to faint on you, you know."

Conrad smiled at Yuri protectively and lovingly, "I'm going to catch you, you know." Yuri smiled before going limp. He turned to spot Murata and Shori.

"Tell Shori I'm sorry, I know he's been worrying a lot lately. I don't think I'm waking up any time soon."

"Understood," Conrad turned his hold from under Yuri's arms to one under his knees, the other under both arms, scooping Yuri up into his arms instead of holding him upright. Yuri closed his eyes to sleep.

-.-.-.-.-

Yuri woke up in a large, plush bed familiar in size to his suite in Shin Makoku. Turning his head to the left, he saw an oversized mirror, and his ragged looking reflection.

His mop-bed-hair poking out at awkward angles from under bandages; the oversized pajamas that he didn't remember owning let alone bringing, and the over-all pale tone of his skin did not go amiss in this observation of said reflection. Yuri's body was stiff as he forced himself upright.

"…Is anyone here?" Yuri asked empty air. He glanced around, no Shori, no Murata or Wolfram, no Gwendel or Gunter or Jose, and no Conrad. He wasn't sure how to interpret the emptiness. Yuri kicked his legs off of the corner of the bed before adjusting his sitting position. "Hello?"

Sighing, he decided he'd have to get up, a shame really, because that bed was near divine. His body hissed at him, achy, when he stood. He rubbed the corner of his head, still sore despite the rest, though for the record it was only an eighth as bad as it had been. "Hello? Anyone?" He tripped over the excess fabric at his feet as he made his way to the vanity.

Once upon it, he saw a change of clothing set out for himself, he happily changed into the clothes before venturing further from the bed in the large room, he went to the door. "Conrad? Shori? …Anyone?"

He opened the door to see an extensive hall with masterful paintings up and down the hallway. Yuri wandered down the hallway, his hand gracing the walls in random spots in order to keep his footing. Finally wandering to an intersection after seemingly forever, he spotted some familiar faces.

Shori turned to see Yuri. "Oi, Yuu-chan you're up already?"

Bob smiled at the other maoh, fixing his own sunglasses.

Jose and Conrad were speaking at first, though Conrad seemed to fall from the conversation at sight of Yuri as he stepped away, excusing himself. He approached Yuri.

"Good morning, Yuri-heika." Yuri shot him a look. "Yuri." Conrad amended.

Yuri smiled softly. "…Good morning, how long was I out for this time?"

"Ten hours." Shori commented, "You should still be asleep. Jose, I thought you said you gave him something to help him sleep."

Jose smiled, "I didn't say I drugged him." His eyes were squinting shut at Shori's accusation, "I just made sure the room was relaxing, really, you'll get me in trouble talking like that."

"Where are the others?" Yuri asked, silently asking why they were at one of Bob's homes instead of at the hotel.

"Currently, the others are working on a method to open a portal that size. Murata Ken is with them." Shori explained, cutting Conrad off.

Conrad smiled slyly, he was on to that challenge for Yuri's attentions and affections, "Would you like to eat, Yuri?"

Yuri's stomach growling just then did not go amiss, he scratched the back of his head, "Aha ha, ha… I guess I am a bit hungry after that."

Shori sighed before he raised up a hand, "I'll go on a coffee and breakfast run. Bob you really should invest in a kitchen in your own house." He mentioned cynically. That man was strangely funny about the weirdest of things.

"I'll go with you to help you carry things." Jose volunteered. "We'll let the others know their precious heika is awake." He smirked.

Yuri groaned, "You infected someone else with that now too, huh Conrad?"

Conrad smiled a bit at that. Yuri slid his back against Conrad's chest.

"…Yuri, if you're still tired you should lie back down."

"I don't want to! It seems that's all I do nowadays." Yuri brooded, "Besides, I want to know what's going on. Bob-sama, you'll fill me in, won't you? After all, that's why you brought me here isn't it?"

Bob nodded. "I'm sorry for not talking to you about this earlier, though I had thought it best not to interfere with your maoh-ship."

-To Be Continued.-

A/N: Hi all! Thanks for reading, please R & R. I'm going to take this moment to let off a rant or three though, about some stuff that should be mentioned under the Author-Tangent section, so friends, please do not feel the need to read that and I do apologize for it taking up some story-space. It is not really meant for the people who read multiple pairings, either, so much as the people who are just rude and won't read it anyway unless to work themselves up to be more indignant in their flames for me.

This is a dedication to all the ConYuu haters, because for as many CONverts as I've made, I've made other 'friends' too, apparently. -Le-sigh-

A/T: Dear readers, I am a ConYuu author, that is the pairing I put rhyme and reason to, I kindly state that with every ONE of my stories, typically at the beginning and the end of the synopses that I put effort into writing, type-count permitting the _second_ warning. So, I do not appreciate people who read it then flame it for being ConYuu that I so aptly warn you about.

Now, why do I write Yuri the way I do for Conrad and the way I do for Wolfram? In other words, why does Yuri use the "I'm not gay" excuse with Wolfram when he is so obviously gay for Conrad? Simple! You see, it's called a lie, also known as an excuse. You lie to shield feelings or get rid of persistent idiots when you go to a bar, or have you ever met someone in the closet and check out his laptop with a booklink to lots of gay porn? I have, many times, actually. So just because Yuri's homophobic to someone I interpret him as not liking, and yet open to possibilities with someone whom he has labeled as perfect… If I have to spell it out for you I'm sorry, but for the sake of decency just realize that it's not so far of a jump (if you allow for that interpretation, again, if you just WRITE YuuRam, interpret it as he hasn't coped yet).

Also, can you ever recall any straight men mentioning how pretty another guy is? Seriously, most guys won't say that if they are straight, in the closet and let one slip, yeah, that'll happen. Just because I interpret the characters a certain way does not mean I am saying burn all Yuuram fanfics, I don't like the pairing at all, that's my choice. My solution? I don't READ it either, and it isn't like you're hurting for reading material in this fandom, there is a lot of it, so why flame me when all I have done is write a clearly and well-labeled story using a set of values and parameters allowed for in the series and the videogames? (KKM, btw is a dating-sim/RPG where you can determine who will be your love interest. Plus, read the manga by the artist and writer, the illustrations and characters tend to be in the shota range, and I can clearly spot many character pairings to the likes of Gwendel x Yuri, Gunter x Yuri, and a LOT of Conrad x Yuri (the most actually). I have yet to spot one that was like Yuri x Wolfram or Wolfram x Yuri, I have seen one Ken x Yuri type, but that's the closest to any near-age uke-seme team-up.) If you really hate my writing, stop reading it half-way through and then go read some other drivel, it's NOT that hard to find.

ConYuu pairings are hard to find though, and I am one to refuse to back down in writing it just because you hate-mail me, either.

Frankly, for all of you haters, let me just say every story I leave Wolfram alive I cringe a bit, because I'd have happily written him out time and again, I only pair him with Murata Ken because he's the only one in the series who I think could tolerate the brat, and that's probably because he reminds him of Shinou minus twenty cool-points. I leave him in instead of having a character-death fic because it's closer to canon and I don't want to really write a Wolf-angst story of the characters lamenting him because he's pretty much useless to me so I made him dead. Ok? There, the inner bitch has said things she's been trying to be nice about. Again, I am allowed to have my own interpretations and you can happily skip over my shit, it isn't hard. Now, be good little buggers and either sign in so we can discuss in PMs why you dislike my stories if you want to be constructive, orrrrrrr stfu and read something ELSE clearly labeled.

-The Management.


	8. Part 8 Necrotizing Relationships

Part 8, Necrosis

At a large solid-oak table, intricately carved and stained slightly darker than traditional oak, Yuri sat in an ornate chair across from Bob.

Laid before him was a set of sweet danishes filled with different creams and fruits. Yuri was actually surprised that the breakfast Shori chose was something so far from Japanese tradition, but he munched on it with the same fierce appetite that would have met any breakfast laid before him. Shori handed Yuri a canned coffee, extra light and sweet.

Yuri blushed, Shori did know his tastes in coffee, that was true but all the same now Conrad did too. He felt so uncool.

Conrad smiled at Yuri compassionately as he watched him, seated next to his fiancé. "Is everything to your liking, Yuri?"

Yuri slid back in his chair, trying to keep as kingly a posture and response as possible, "I'm not someone hard to please, you know." Why were they walking on eggshells around him? Did they think he'd break or something? He was a boy, for crying out loud! He was tougher than that!

Sipping at the warm canned coffee, he was glad Shori had gotten it. He missed this. Earth's, no better still, Japan's canned coffee was not something easily reproduced. It was absolutely delicious, just the right smoothness and warmth, flavor… and caffeine to beat off that grogginess he was feeling.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't wary, it penetrated to his bones how tired he was, but if this was a crisis, and it was, then he couldn't afford to just lax back into his recovery. Besides, with Belal trying things, well, they had a lot to worry about. He had a lot more on his plate than a cheese-danish.

"Bob, would you please explain to me what you know about this faction?" Yuri started. He drank more of his coffee, his eyes felt heavy.

"Certainly. Some Mazoku, including myself, were born with the ability to use maryoku even though the elements don't tend to hold contracts here. The exception to that rule is with the Earth Maoh, and Shin Makoku Maoh. Out of that group, what often develops is a form of latent psychic abilities trying to make contact with the elements. Sometimes the powers develop more than just reaching for a link and they become able to use these psychic powers. As you've already encountered, there is a cost to this. They have taught themselves rituals and magic, much like houseki users in Shin Makoku, they piggy-back their houseki to their own maryoku, which compounds their powers and problems. Maryoku is life energy, a contract with the element shares the burden, but they not only shoulder that burden upon themselves, they complicate it further. While some of the members knew they had latent powers, they were underdeveloped, so they studied the magical arts for their own curiosities. When the Mirror at the Bottom of the Sea was removed, however, their powers became much stronger, no longer in check and no longer fully under their control without resorting to using houseki to focus it. Of course, as that only amplifies the wear on the users… they've noticed a dip in their population. Instead of having psychic powers running amok, they turned to this, and it is killing them. If they were to travel to Shin Makoku, 

they believe something will hold them in check, or at least by having a contract they can merely use their maryoku. Some may plan to keep using both, but as long as they are on Shin Makoku, the effects would be miniscule. The movement was started by a group of several individuals, Kiyosuke merely acts as a delegate from that group. Their range in powers are quite wide, but we suspect the individuals dying are only from the middle of the pack."

Yuri nodded, trying to take that all in. "And there are 970 of them?"

"You only need to be concerned with the 600 or so survivors. The others are dead, they will not cross over, they are driven only to save their friends and family."

Yuri's eyes panged, that stabbed at his heart how painful that was.

"Most of the children have survived." Bob added, busily reading Yuri's every movement to anticipate the young man's actions.

"…We have to make a portal as quickly as possible, Bob. But we can hardly just use a fountain, if we used a sacred lake… maybe I could open a portal large enough that it won't have to be sustained for long."

"Yuu-chan, you missed the point. The children have compensated. You can break it up into groups." Shori started.

"And how exactly would you do that, Shori? How would you be able to separate parents and children for an undetermined amount of time? I understood what he meant! It just… doesn't change things." He sighed, leaning back into the plush seat. "Is there any water-feature you can think of that would work for something like this Bob?"

Bob touched the bottom of his chin, "Renting out a hot-spring resort may work. That way there will be little suspicion and the waters have a spiritual energy to them."

Yuri smiled, nodding, that did make sense.

Bob managed to end the unrelenting questions after going through the history of the Earth-Mazoku a second time in two days, in doing so strengthening Yuri's resolve. The young man concentrated on eating his breakfast, lunch, and even sleeping as if that would make him able to heal that much quicker.

Conrad happily played along, enjoying the overt cuteness that was Shibuya Yuri. Shori seemed split between monitoring Yuri and the progress being made amongst the others. In some small way, Shori acknowledged that Conrad wasn't just 'relaxing' by hanging out with Yuri, but in fact was guarding him within an inch of his life in such a way that Yuri was completely oblivious to. Tricky bastard. Shori glared at Conrad, again. How dare he try to take his job protecting his Yuu-chan… 

Black locks of hair stuck in wet clumps to the sides of Yuri's face and head, after awakening from a nightmare, he decided to forgo sleep to get up and wander. Truthfully he was checking his own strength as he did so, he wanted to open that portal, and he decided that staggered might be the way to go- 

instead of picking out a group, though, to tell them to prepare their own party of one hundred to go ahead with Gunter and Gwendel, then in a few more days get another group, then again, and again as long as it took to get them across.

Yuri slid into the wall, feeling his energy's depletion after the short walk. He sighed, he gave himself three days max in order to open that portal. He didn't have the time to just waste, beyond that, the longer he was on Earth was the longer Shin Makoku was being back-logged with paperwork especially with Gunter and Gwendel here with him. Taking a few deep breaths he forced himself from the wall and approached the bedroom, the strongest person he knew would be in there, surely Conrad would lend him some strength, if only in the form of resolve-- well, confidence in his resolve.

Hardly to Yuri's surprise as he entered the bedroom, Conrad's toned arms wrapped around him, brown eyes having seized him from the door. Yuri smiled as the warmth of Conrad's body pressed to his pooled. He leaned into the grasp, being captured like this was the most pleasant 'trap' he could think to fall into.

Fingers ruffled through his damp hair as Conrad breath wisped over Yuri's right ear, he smiled faintly. His head was starting to spin, burying his face into Conrad's chest Yuri let out a gasp. "You shouldn't push yourself so hard, Yuri. Please rest now."

Yuri sighed in defeat, Conrad could see through him far too easily. "I had an idea, well, have an idea of what we could do about the situation. I think Gwendel and Gunter should go back to Shin Makoku with some of the group. I think a hundred would be…"

"Too much for you to handle? I agree." Conrad smiled softly at Yuri. Yuri pouted his lip at that, Conrad rarely disagreed with him.

"Well what do you expect? Send 50? Conrad, if I only send 50 at a time the time it will take for me to get everyone back to Shin Makoku will be years…"

Conrad tilted Yuri's chin to look him in the eyes, "You don't have that kind of strength yet, and I know this is prefacing wanting to do this, let me guess, in another day or so?" Conrad smiled with his eyes closed knowing he hit it on the mark.

Yuri's pout became heavier. "So what if that's the case! I think I can do it!"

"And you may be able to, but I don't think your body can handle actually doing so just yet. It's too risky Yuri."

Yuri pulled back, making sure Conrad could see the full display of his pout, "I'm not stepping back from this, I know I can't send a group as large as 600 in one shot, even with help I couldn't, but I don't see how staggering it would be so bad! If I don't do that there's no way to do it period, and that's not an option. You know that!"

"Oh, I do. I also know that a few days isn't enough time for you, though, it would take at least ten days for you to recover from the surgery."

"I really don't want to fight about this Conrad."

"Neither do I, so if you'd just care to give in this can all be over." He smirked, keeping a playful tone to keep from alienating Yuri, though he could tell Yuri was miffed to say the least.

"Don't make me say it." Yuri gave Conrad a look; he really hated to pull authority. He really, really did! Conrad wasn't backing down though, "Conrad, I'm not asking. This _is_ what is going to happen."

Murata Ken smirked from beside the door, just arriving at Bob's abode in time to view the lovers' spat. "Oh, I agree with Shibuya."

Conrad gave a tempered glare that informed Ken his opinion meant nothing, then softened, he sighed. "I strongly advise against this."

Murata smiled, "But I think I'll head back to Shin Makoku as well, of course with Wolfram too. I've contacted Ulrich, she and I can amplify the portal on the other end, that should take a great strain off of Shibuya, a hundred sounds about right."

Conrad held his sigh that time, this was exasperating. He could see Yuri's beaming face, obviously keen to the horrible idea. It would be a lie to say Conrad wasn't thinking about how Julia died, and the group didn't exactly make Conrad comfortable, either.

"Conrad," Yuri touched his shoulder, the man must have known he was beat by now, so he decided to treat his love with an apologetic tone. He really did hate fighting with Conrad, "I can do this. Really, with the others helping, I can do it I swear I'll stop if it gets to be too much."

Brown eyes focused in on his own tightly, they sent the cynical message of, 'Oh really like when you…' Yuri felt a cold sweat drop down his neck.

"You'll be there to stop me if I go too far, so I know I'll be fine." He smiled, "After all, you'd never let anything bad happen to me." Yuri smiled at Conrad, the trust irradiated the room, permeating Conrad's stubbornness.

Conrad's shoulders relaxed, he was hardly in the position to keep up that resolve. He relented, at least when going along with Yuri's ideas he'd be close enough to pull him out of harm's way; that had always been his working philosophy. 

"I understand. If you insist on this I can't really say no, now can I?"" Conrad smiled at Yuri with his own smile burning into the teen.

"Then I'll go address them." Yuri smiled; Yuri counted three strong glares landing on him to quickly counter.

"No." Yuri blinked at the unison of voices and the sudden appearance of Shori. Shori chose to continue, much more willing than the others to berate the teen, "There is no way I'd let you go near those people in your condition! How you can just trust them so easily! Get back in bed and rest, now!"

Blinking, continuously, Yuri digested his brother's outburst. His eyebrows furrowed, "They just had to be reasoned with, you're acting like they're criminals…"

"Monsters, actually." Shori offered.

"Like that's any better! They were afraid, I have to talk to them so they take this seriously and understand that I'm not just tugging them along. It's my responsibility as the Maoh of Shin Makoku."

"Then I, as the future Maoh of Earth, should easily be able to substitute as we're both working on this process, they are still currently under Earth's authority."

Yuri let out a deep sigh, "Conrad, help me talk sense into…"

"That sounds like a fantastic idea." Conrad cut in, before Yuri could get a chance to disagree. Large black eyes gawked at Conrad in shock.

He threw his hand in the air, "I don't even know what's going on anymore, here! Conrad's taking Shori's side, you two are agreeing, and we're fighting! Seriously, what is this?" He took in a calming breath, "Fine, I guess this is a compromise then, alright?"

Conrad put a warm hand on Yuri's shoulder, his other arm wrapped around Yuri's chest to pull his back against Conrad's chest as he hugged him, "Yuri, you know how much I care about you. Your brother and I both love you too much to let you put yourself in such a bad position, you promised to let me protect you so just consider the two things related, alright?"

Yuri's cheeks grew pink as he bowed his head down, "Alright. But I still don't understand how you and Shori are getting along so well, it's _weird_."

Shori smiled victoriously, though he still glared at Conrad, how dare he sling his arms around Yuu-chan like that! Only Shori should be allowed to be so familiar with _his_ adorable Yuu-chan.

"Call me big-brother, Yuu-chan." He put his hand on Yuri's black mop of hair. He raked it over to look at the bandage which made Yuri's eyes widen.

"Shori what are you doing!" He pulled back, his back pressing tighter to Conrad's chest, the brunette strengthened his embrace. He shot Shori a fierce glare, thinking Shori was being a bit too familiar with _his_ Heika. The older Shibuya seemed unimpressed as he continued to thumb the bandage.

"How is your head doing?"

Yuri sighed, "The more you're around the more the headache seems to come back." He muttered to himself, "Its much better, is that what you want to hear? That you were right about the surgery or something…"

"That has nothing to do with what I want to hear, well, I am used to being right but that's beside the point. It is doing better though? You aren't just saying that?"

Conrad smiled, "He has been doing much better; however, he should lay back down now. One is coming on, again, isn't it Yuri?"

Yuri let out a grumble that told the two Conrad was right and that Shori wasn't far from his mark either. Murata smiled before approaching his friend.

"I'll stay with Shibuya, you two look like you want to have a chat."

The older men exited the room upon the Great Sage's suggestion, some more begrudgingly than others. 

Once the door clicked shut, Murata gave Yuri a cold, tempered stare. "You need to be very careful about this, Shibuya. If they decide to be 'helpful' it could kill you."

Yuri gawked at Ken, disbelieving the transformation. "I know that."

"Do you, do you really? Remember, if you die, you don't get to marry Conrad or have that happy life in Shin Makoku or on Earth."

"Well obviously." Yuri sighed, "So you have misgivings about this too? I know I can handle a hundred, I know its pushing it, too."

"Then you also realize they are going to push for more, don't you?"

Yuri nodded once, "Because they're panicked. But it's the only plausible way to go."

Ken fixed his glasses, "Well if Conrad's there I don't see a problem with it."

TBC.


	9. Part 9 Deadly Plans

Ken fixed his glasses as he looked at his best friend. "The ritual is straight-forward enough, Gwendel and I will cross over first, Gunter and Wolfram will go toward the end. That way, if anything starts to go wrong you have some back-up, and someone to do the paperwork."

Yuri smiled nervously, ah the wisdom that was the Great Sage. "And you'll be able to prepare the ritual on that end?"

"Not quite, Ulrich will set it up, and when I get there I'll just join in. You don't have to worry about those details, it's kind of like when I lent power to your maoh-form, you just go about like everything is normal… well, as normal as that is."

Yuri nodded twice, "Okay. So, how do we keep them in check with Ulrich splitting her concentration, hasn't she been suppressing their energy?"

Ken sweat-dropped, he hadn't counted on Yuri figuring that out just yet.

"…That's why so few of them are dying, she's concentrating on the kids, isn't she?"

The teenaged Great Sage nodded himself, "That was the strategy, you're right that she can't keep the concentration up during the ritual, that's why if they go berserk- and that would be the time to do it- that it could kill you. Nothing but your charm will be keeping them in check. Once the portal closes, she'll pick back up on that."

Yuri put a hand on his bandage, feeling the netting as he gently stroked his forehead. "Don't tell Conrad or Shori."

Murata smiled whimsically, "That's a bit underhanded of you."

"Not really, it'll make it easier to keep everyone calm, if those two aren't busy giving everyone looking at me the evil eye." Yuri smiled sincerely, imagining the action.

"Well, your older brother would be doing that regardless." Murata reasoned, earning him a snicker from Yuri.

"The other problem at hand is what to do with Belal, we still don't really know why he was even targeting Shin Makoku, well short of his wanting to rule the whole world thing."

Murata shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe he was bored. I'm sure Yozak has been busy looking into that though."

"Yeah," Yuri let out a fatigued groan as he stretched his back, "I guess I should try to sleep a bit while I'm here, really though, now I'm bored. All I seem to do is…"

"Go maoh and save the day?"

"…I was going to say sleep and cause disaster."

Murata fixed his glasses, "Well, I can't say disaster doesn't flirt with you, but hell, what doesn't?"

Yuri felt a cold sweat cake the back of his neck, not wanting to recall the bounty of people flinging themselves at him, "That does seem to have gone down thanks to Conrad." He smiled, happily.

"…No, you're just even more oblivious now that you aren't looking for any possible escape route from your faux engagement to my boy toy." Murata corrected, adding his own amused snigger into the mix. "But hey, I always did like the pretty ones."

"Yeah… sure." Yuri didn't really know how to continue on that subject, it wasn't as if he particularly had spotted the redeeming qualities in Wolfram as a lover. As a friend, sure, but… some things were a mystery to him that he determined was okay to have a Great Sage be the only one clued in. Yuri leaned back into the bed only to hear another ruckus from outside the door.

He really was wondering how this abandoned little stretch of hallway had suddenly become the center of the universe.

Standing back up, in an endless game of cat and mouse with sleep, Yuri along with Ken approached the door, opening it to see Shori glaring at Conrad, fist clenched.

Black eyes shot wide, well karmic balance to the universe was restored if the two were at least no longer on good terms, Yuri supposed.

"…" Yuri pointed at Conrad for a moment, thinking of how to tactfully inquire what the two thought they were doing, he really couldn't find a smooth transition point. "…Why are you two fighting now? I thought you two were on good terms."

"How could I be on good terms with the man engaged to my baby brother?" Shori snapped again giving Conrad a dirty look.

Yuri rolled his eyes and looked at Conrad, "The same way I'm on good terms with the mailman who makes me sign for all of your filthy hentai titles, I thought." Yuri countered. Really, it had been going smoothly between the two, and Yuri really did like the idea of familial harmony versus strife. Gods knew he had more than enough of that from Wolfram to last five lifetimes. The Mazoku ones.

"Conrad, why don't you come here, Shori you're going to talk to them now, aren't you?" Yuri gave his older brother the look any younger child has, the one that wraps the elder sibling around their little finger, commanding the desired response.

Shori let out a barely audible growl at Conrad, making note about him being a smug pervert or something. Ken seemed to have heard it and filed it under the '_I know you are but what am I'_ pile. "I'll keep you company, older-brother of my friend."

"Oh, great for you," Shori added bitterly, annoyed that he was getting to spend so little of time with his Yuu-chan.

After the elder double-black maoh stormed off to his own task, Yuri pulled Conrad into the bedroom and then onto the bed before laying down, himself. "I can't really sleep." Yuri stated matter-of-factly.

Equally as straight-laced, Conrad replied, "I've noticed." He smiled wryly as if debating to ask what brought him into Yuri's bed when thoughts of sleeping seemed to be out the window… but, he determined that might be a bit too much for the teenager.

"Sleep with me." Yuri's statement was more of a requesting preposition than command. Conrad blinked a few times, unsure of exactly what that entailed, sleeping with someone and having sex with someone, the Japanese was fairly close in translation for a person with only so much working knowledge of the language.

Seeming to feel the tension, Yuri amended, "I'm tired, I know it's childish, like I'm using you as a body-pillow or something, but… isn't that okay?" Yuri's pleading eyes and desire for Conrad's affection seemed to have won over the brunette, however, as the man crushed him into a hug to his chest.

Conrad couldn't help but think of how cute Yuri was, he really was remarkably adorable in the way he acted, sometimes. Oh, the sexiness was there too, Conrad reminded himself, after kissing Yuri's forehead, to the left of the bandages.

Ever the gentleman, Conrad laid Yuri back into the bed, kissing his lips as he pressed him back against the mattress before rolling to the side, leaving his arms tangled around Yuri's slim waist, keeping him in a snug fit with the contours of his own body.

Yuri curled into the body-pillow-by-Conrad, taking in the lovely scent of the brunette, his half-lidded eyes made conscious effort to find Conrad's warm brown eyes before falling closed in exhaustion. He hoped this time he could avoid the nightmares he'd been having.

He wondered if half the urgency he felt didn't stem from those hellacious dreams on their own. Big Shimeron, the kohi, the dead bodies littering the ground, and that little girl… the villagers and those soldiers, all of it was truly heavy and he felt like his shoulders were dragging mountains. Conrad put a hand on Yuri's shoulder, rubbing small circles as he continued to cradle the young bride-to-be.

Yuri's hands balled into the fabric in Conrad's shirt as he drifted into a dream.

It was one of those weird dreams, the kind that when it starts, logic just waves from the train station saying bon voyage then loads onto a submarine that flies through marshmallow cereal. By the time he was half-through the dream he distinctly realized he was crying, but he couldn't tell why.

When he woke up to Conrad's soft shaking of his shoulder all that he could remember between the dream involved his being pregnant with twins one with angel-wings, the other with bat-wings and lots of frills, trills, and thrills from the grandmother-to-be. He vaguely recalled what happened in between this weird dream with corpses, Belal, and crucifixion of sock-puppets that had mahjong-tile eyes for the four seasons and the black dragon.

Yuri shook his head, "…What in the…" He looked at Conrad, the man was looking at him with great concern.

"Are you alright? You seemed to be having a nightmare…" Conrad reasoned, seeming to feel intrusive for invading Yuri's sleep.

"…Ah, it was a weird nightmare-in-dream thing, I… I'm fine." Yuri smiled, though the beads of tears did make that look less reassuring. "Mom was right, we would make great looking kids… wings and all." Yuri muttered out dirtily. "…Though why I had to be the pregnant one, I don't even want to know. Well, I guess it really couldn't be you…"

Yuri sighed. He really was feminine in comparison to Conrad, the epitome of the perfect man.

"I'd have gotten you pickled-plum ice cream and peaches to your heart's content." Conrad nodded, trying to give a very sweet smile, but Yuri was still stuck on the plum-pun. Did Conrad even know about the folktale Peach Boy?

"…" Black eyes focused in on a pout, unsure of whether or not he was being teased.

"Oh, of course if you still want some now I'd still get it for you." He smiled, disarming Yuri with his charm, Yuri blushed.

"No, no I'm good." He laughed; Conrad leaned in to steal a kiss. Yuri closed his eyes, savoring the lips on his before the fleeting moment was ended and the lips rescinded.

-.-.-.-.-

By the late afternoon, everyone gathered at the massive oak dining room table, rolling out papers and plans. Enough schematics to make Jose's mecca-otaku heart flutter, Bob returned with a thumb's up, signaling the attainment of a very luxurious hot spring.

Shori tampered with his glasses as they sat, looking disaffected as he recounted the meeting, informing Yuri of the endless amounts of nagging he dealt with on Yuri's behalf, though his younger brother didn't seem impressed, what with Shori having insisted he go.

"Okay, if everything is set up with them, Gwendel, Gunter, Wolfram… I want you to all go back with Murata and the others, Conrad will stay behind as my personal guard until we transport everyone back."

Gwendel's eyebrow twitched as if imagining Anissina's new designs or perhaps the load of paperwork, however he didn't argue the point.

"If possible, I want you to find out as much about what Belal is planning as possible." Yuri added in a straight-laced tone, indicating just how pressing of an issue that itself was. "Leave the emigration details to me over here."

Gwendel nodded once, Yuri blushed. It was almost as if Gwendel possibly thought he was competent as a maoh, almost. He quickly wiped the thought from his mind.

"Alright, onto security detail then," Murata added to Conrad's great relief. He really didn't want Yuri to forget that subject.

Yuri smiled as the conversation progressed. Was it really childish to be happy to have gotten what he wanted?

The meet dragged on for several hours, Yuri excused himself half-way through, which didn't seem to upset the others as they progressed the details in a much more realistic way once he was gone. The black-haired maoh approached a plush couch and rested his head on the padded arms, he was a bit surprised Bob had so much plush furniture, the man seemed more like the practical, firm modernist when Yuri tried to imagine the minimalist decorations he would have suspected the home to house.

He let out a lengthy yawn before closing his eyes. The rest didn't last long, he was having a nightmare again, this one more vivid than the others, he could see the bodies, smell the charred flesh, even Julia manifested in the dream to shield him from the sight, telling him inaudibly to close his eyes.

As his dream self did such, his own eyes opened, horrified. Over and over, one word echoed, resonating in his unhearing state, 'Time.' Time, because that was a precious commodity he did not have. Yuri watched his hands as they shook, still seeing the traces of char and blood from trying to dig out the villager he had so clearly seen crushed under the burning rafter. His eyes watered, the scene was far too familiar to when he had lost Conrad, his stomach could hardly take the abuse but he told himself not to dare throw up.

Swallowing back a mouth full of nothing, hard, he stood up and walked to the window to watch the wooded area. He'd do whatever it took to save his world, he never wanted war to exist again. It was a relic and an eyesore. No one should have to lose anyone ever again, the blood spilt was far more than enough.

He jumped at the sudden contact of skin to skin as a hand landed on his shoulder. Whipping around, he spotted Conrad eying him, measuring him. Yuri smiled reassuringly, though Conrad didn't seem to buy it.

"What are your nightmares about, Yuri?"

Yuri smiled, "Fighting off the inevitable, I think." He shook his head morosely, "Fear is one thing, but death… that's something impossibly hard to fight." It struck him how the necromancers were in the same struggle, captivated by the dangerous beauty of death itself. He shook the thought off with the shake of his head. No, death was supposed to be necessary for appreciation of life, but untimely death he could do without he supposed.

Conrad raised Yuri's chin with a steady hand, "You have a knack for facing those kinds of fights." He smiled at Yuri, making the black-haired person before him relax his taut features.

How the brunette did that, strengthen Yuri so resolutely, Yuri was unsure, but he was grateful for it all the same. "Mm, I guess I must be, if you say so." He winked, "After all, somehow I convinced you to love me."

Conrad laughed, "Well, I don't think that's quite as hard a task as you think." Yuri bowed his head back down.

"Now, if I can convince my mother I can't get pregnant life would be good. So, what did you talk about when I left?"

"Simply ironing out some finer details, nothing you really need to concern yourself with." Yuri nodded at the sentiment, after all that was the point of advisors wasn't it? So the king could concentrate on the big picture and leave the refining to the others.

"That, and trying to convince your brother he's not going to marry you." Conrad mentioned. Yuri instantaneously blanched, making his fiancé chuckle.

"C-C-Conrad! Don't even joke about something so… horrible!"

Yuri felt a set of angry black eyes on the back of his head, suddenly knowing Shori was in the room.

"What's horrible? Is something wrong?" Shori approached, slightly miffed that Conrad found Yuri before he did. He wanted to be the one to talk to Yuri.

"N-nothing!" Yuri smiled, scratching the back of his head as he reassured Shori, "You know how he is with his puns, he just had a really bad one. Really Conrad, that's one thing you could work on."

Conrad shirked his eyebrows playfully like that didn't mean too much, but might take in some time for consideration over the next few centuries.

"So, I guess we leave for the hot springs in another two days." Yuri said.

"Two days is a short time, Yuu-chan. You should make the most of it by relaxing. We'll work on the rest of this, after all, what's going to fall on your shoulders is a lot more than it looks."

Yuri nodded, "Yeah, thanks Shori." He let out a sigh, really, sleeping could be such a bore, not like the nightmares were exactly an improvement either.

"If you're bored, I could help you study." Shori fixed his glasses, causing Yuri to hide behind Conrad.

"No, no, I'll be fine Shori." He laughed nervously. Shori's eyes narrowed as he fixed his stare on Conrad, moving them back to Yuri, imagining him as a toddler in pigtails and a dress and how he'd hide behind him like that way back when.

"Call me big-brother." Shori bit out before exhaling sharply.

Yuri poked his tongue out at the older Shibuya brother, "I don't want to." Smiling playfully, he slumped against Conrad's back yawning silently. He realized that for the past few hours his head had managed not to pang, well, that was a massive improvement.

TBC.


	10. Part 10 Regicide, the King is Dead!

Necromancer, part 10 Regicide The King is Dead.

Sliding against the wall to keep upright, which Yuri was finding more and more difficult to do, he realized how dire his situation had become.

Pinned by sword to that said wall with the crushing weight against his, his heart for the life of him Yuri didn't understand why it was trying to burst from his chest like this. He realized he couldn't breathe, swallowing hard, somehow he managed to signal that to the force that was Conrad Weller.

Conrad pulled out of the kiss for a moment for Yuri to gasp in the air, his head was swimming, Conrad's lips were so sweet. The brunette took the break to adjust his sword to stop it from sticking into Yuri's hip.

"I'm sorry." Conrad mentioned but with that guilty smile, Yuri highly doubted Conrad had an ounce of sincerity for the sudden pin and kiss. Not one iota of true remorse for it, and that was good because if Conrad had Yuri was pretty sure he'd have run off to cry and boys really shouldn't have to do that.

Swallowing once more, he proceeded to suck in a breath, it looked like he was about to open his mouth to say something when Conrad's thumb found Yuri's bottom lip, using it to tilt his chin up and guide his own lips back over Yuri's, Yuri let out a needy moan ever so softly.

Pulling back, Conrad whispered into Yuri's ear a faint nothingness but the words didn't matter, no, that sweet voice, that gentle tingling vibration on his sensitive skin, all of that conveyed more than language could at this point.

He heard it mentioned again, this time he had tried to catch the words though, Yuri's eyes shot wide open as the car hit a jarring bump, launching him from Conrad's lap where the brunette had been playing with his silky hair.

Yuri's wide eyes locked in on Conrad, as if hurt by some unseen demon, Conrad looked at him with a bit of confusion in his own eyes, when he saw Yuri shake his head like he was trying to recollect his own senses Conrad merely smiled at Yuri with assurance.

All that echoed in his burning ears were the words spoken over and over again in his dream, "Bring Julia back."

That might sound like a strange request, but as Yuri recalled the scent of his own blood, the warmth of it, or should he say the fading warmth of it as it had spilt from him… the sudden offer of the necromancers to bring her back instead of him… if that was what Conrad wished, in exchange for him keeping the portal open that much longer.

Yuri cupped his head in his hands, and no this had nothing to do with a headache brought about by a swift kick to the head. Yuri knew his eyes were watering, but that was his own self-conscience doing what self-consciences do best to teenaged, well, adolescent men. Torture them. "Ah, I uh, got something in my eye." Yuri said as he rubbed away at the tears.

"Yuri?"

Yuri turned to face out of the car window to spot the ever-changing wooded scenery as it moved closer and closer to the hot spring resort Bob had made the arrangements with.

After those necessary few moments, Yuri turned back around, convincing himself that what he just had dreamt was nothing more than that, a horrible, bad dream. Conrad could never hurt him like that, he loved Yuri, so he was obviously just more tired than he cared to admit.

"Yes Conrad?" He smiled playfully at Conrad, the brunette thumbed Yuri's bottom lip and tilted up his chin. Yuri felt he was about to lose himself to the sensation of that same sultry kiss, and then that same crashing sensation of the floor disappearing from under him, but somehow he managed to ignore it, it helped that Conrad's lips weren't pushing onto his.

"Be very careful today, if anything happened to you…" Conrad's voice cut out as if it was too painful to endure even finishing the thought let alone to voice it. "Yuri, you're our world so please be careful."

Yuri smiled at Conrad, "I know, I know! If it's too much I'll stop." He winked at Conrad as he leaned into the strong arms, "And you'll be there, so you should know everything will be fine."

In some sick way it felt like the last-rites, the way the procession had went in order to leave Yuri with the most time away from the magical presence that would otherwise tax him. Murata and Shori were working on the fine details that required just a bit of maryoku while Gunter and Gwendel were busy conversing with the groups explaining just how they are to enter and exit the portal. Upon the end of the detailed instructions, Gwendel noticed the sheepish looks of countless children and the serene stares of some able-bodied males and females.

Yuri and Conrad entered the massive resort, approaching the inn portion in order to deposit and unpack their own belongings; Conrad was certain Yuri would hardly be able to leave the area until he finished this task.

Finally, after these dragging few days, Yuri was able to do what he came here to do, return peace and safety to his worlds. Well, while he wasn't under the disillusionment that he couldn't do that on Earth as he was nothing more than a teenaged Japanese boy in a gakuran, on Shin Makoku he knew he held enough authority to carry the threat.

A thought struck Yuri as he mused about the likelihood of how much of an effect he could have on Earth with the thoughts of how- no, why wars were often started in history lessons. Battles, scouts, he suddenly became very curious to know if Belal's country was in a recession or possibly worse, a famine or disease-state.

After all, the other options tended to be for property-gain or popularity, and he highly doubted Belal would easily be able to raise an army with his current status unless there was more reason, and as there was absolutely no aggression from Shin Makoku, well, Yuri decided he'd ask Gwendel to check on the financial stats, and suggest the sudden import of the finer products Big Chimeron had to offer.

"Conrad," Yuri started, "I want to speak with Gwendel and Gunter before they return. About Belal, you don't think Big Chimeron is in trouble do you?"

Conrad gave him a strange look, well, the question was a bit bizarre, is the country trying to trouble our country having problems? He knew the follow up would be, Can we fix it? "Ah, I do believe Big Chimeron has been in a recession, one of their major crops had a poor yield."

"I see. Opening more trade with Belal may make him have to withdraw his troops, if he sees his chance for financial gain, he might be tempted to actually take his subjects' side."

Conrad smiled, so Yuri was devising ways to keep peace even without an open understanding. It surprised him a bit how Yuri was being a tad bit manipulative, however he knew this was something diplomacy was founded upon. It anything, this marked a mile-stone, Yuri growing more into the role of Maoh but the connotation that he was able to read a situation and play it in a certain way… he thought back to the way Yuri had been looking at him in the car. Yuri was hiding something from him, is hiding something from him, and Conrad wasn't particularly fond of it.

"I shall collect them, then Yuri-heika."

Yuri looked at Conrad, noting the heika with a bit of scorn, "It's Yuri, there's no heika in my name."

Conrad merely bowed to excuse himself. "Please wait here." He decided that paying Murata a visit was apparently necessary.

With Conrad gone, Yuri began to dress for the ceremony, technically he had to look kingly with this, didn't he? Yuri chose to wear a white and black cloak with intricate stitching and detailed precision for the garb. Below it, he wore a black suit more familiar to a uniform than an actual suit, but it was streamlined in a way that defined it as something much more formal than a gakuran. He slipped on two wrist-bands with an imprint of something scarily akin to Morgif on each.

As he was ready to put his crown on, which he supposed he was glad Gunter had insisted he bring, the door slammed open. Conrad was giving Yuri a look of a very dangerous person, the only thing Yuri could think of at the exact moment was Murata let it slip.

"…Conrad?"

He was quickly shuffled towards the wall, pressed to it, making the teen squirm as the brunette's hands crushed Yuri's shoulders. "Those aren't the sort of things to hide from your private guard, _Heika_."

Yuri swallowed hard, "Conrad… what are you doing? And it's Yuri!" He tried to show some form of indignation, knowing that Conrad's anger trumped his infinitely.

"Explain to me, just when exactly you planned to tell me that they might go berserk during the ceremony?"

Yuri laughed nervously, "Murata has a big mouth, doesn't he."

"I heard this from Wolfram."

"…" Yuri's eyebrow twitched, "…Murata does have a big mouth." He let out a sigh. "Conrad I wasn't going to tell you because if you act like that in there, the chances of them going berserk is all that more."

"So you couldn't trust me?" Conrad's eyebrow gave Yuri a stern look explaining to him that he did not take that excuse as a good one.

"Conrad, I do trust you, don't be like that! You trust me, don't you?" Yuri countered, "Or is it okay to question my judgment?"

Conrad's hands released from Yuri's arms, "…I'm sorry, Yuri. I understand what you're saying, but this is something I must be informed of. I am your personal guard, any information like that is critical for me to have to better your protection. You said you would allow me to protect you, so I need to be informed especially with things that drastic."

Yuri bowed his head, "I… I'm sorry, Conrad. I should have said something, you're right. Please forgive me." All the while, Yuri buzzed in his ears how big of a mouth Murata had when he wanted to.

Conrad stroked Yuri's cheek with the dorsal side of his hand, sad eyes more of a punishment than Yuri thought he could take.

"…Ok, so, um… well, I'm unpacked and dressed… we should, a, get this rolling don't you think?"

Conrad stopped moving his hand, still pressed to Yuri's cheek. Yuri felt how those cheeks burned, he imagined the shade of red he probably was, Conrad leaned in to kiss him. Yuri closed his eyes to enjoy it. After savoring the taste of Conrad's lips for no less than 97 seconds, Yuri pulled back, "We should get going." Yuri mentioned again.

With that said, Conrad relented and let Yuri start his pace. "I love you, Yuri." Conrad whispered before opening the door leading to the main hall of the resort.

Here, Yuri would address the subjects before the procession to the bath-house and Shin Makoku. Yuri swallowed as he faced the horde, two hundred people were in attendance, half of which with a ticket to the other side of the looking-glass as it were, and the rest were either there for support or trouble, but Yuri was pretty sure it was the latter.

A familiar shop-keeper was busy pouring drinks for the children and talking to them about moving, the big adventure, and generally keeping peace. To his side was the would-be Anissina, she was divvying out survival packs, Yuri noticed the distinctive absence of Kiyosuke. He approached the group.

"Attention, everyone, if I may please have your attention." Yuri began.

He felt the eyes of everyone in the room focus in on him, which was a bit unnerving to the teenager, but he got over it as he continued his address, "Everyone who is going to Shin Makoku on this trip should 

proceed to the main bath-house. Everyone else, please say your goodbyes here. You will be reunited as soon as possible."

Some cheering was heard, but for the most part it was a solemn event, people waving, hugging, crying and carrying on with their lives. Yuri watched on as the one hundred approved were escorted, the others on lock-down.

Yuri allowed his doctor to accompany the group as the representative, though she assured him she had no plans to go over just quite yet.

Upon viewing the massive pools, Yuri approached Ken and the others, "We'll see you in a few months. Please take care of Shin Makoku in my absence."

Ken nodded, "I'm sure Gwendel will even take down all of Anissina's gaudy trappings by time you get back."

"We'll look into Big Chimeron's activities at once." Gwendel added.

"Good, and please take care of the new denizens." Yuri turned to look at Murata once more, "If there are any incidents… well, just take care and I hope nothing does happen over there."

Ken nodded knowingly, "I'm sure it will be fine, Shibuya."

Yuri nodded once, he was shocked by the sudden looming appearance of his older brother, "What are you mumbling about? This isn't some team-huddle before a ball-game Yuri. They're all waiting."

Laughing off the nervousness, Yuri scratched his head, just glad he could take the bandage off, the crown doing wonders in hiding his chopped section of hair.

"Everyone, we will begin in a few more moments. Please listen to Jose and Shori by moving in single-file lines through the portal."

Yuri took a deep breath and drew out both of his hands, stooping to the water, he touched it with one hand, drawing it upward he splashed the warmed waters, transforming it into a vortex. The swirl settled down into a glowing, ripple-less surface. He nodded at Gwendel who started the procession, walking in. Immediately following him, a string of Mazoku proceeded to enter.

By the time 70 people had transferred, Yuri felt a strange prickling in his arms. He winced, he had figured something like this would happen, to his own dismay.

Conrad eyed Yuri, suspicious of the look on his face. Approaching the teenager, Conrad whispered, "Yuri, are you alright?"

Yuri winced his left eye closed, relying on his right eye to keep the room in focus, he hoped that his eye had enough rest to be willing to perform. "Something's wrong…" Yuri whispered in an equally muted voice, "It feels wrong."

Yuri's left eye opened as he spotted 'something wrong' protruding from the portal, a monstrously out-of-place living blockade… well, okay probably not _living_ but a blockade all the same. It was the size of King Kong's hand reaching through the portal.

His shoulders felt heavy, as the first of the last approached, Yuri became acutely aware that he wouldn't be able to close the portal upon the object. When the doors slammed open, Yuri was expecting a bum rush, but instead found a fiery raven-haired woman storming the main hall. Well, that was promising.

Face contorted in his wince, Yuri drew his left hand away from the water to summon maryoku to attack the intrusive figure.

Yuri let out a shriek of pain as sets of much longer hands reached from the portal, grabbing his ankles and lower legs.

Before Yuri could utter out "Wha" from his question of "What is going on?!" Conrad had his sword drawn and was hacking away the unfortunate bits of expended flesh. Yuri shook his head, returning his focus on the massive hand protruding the worlds, the bum-rush he had initially expected, instead of coming from the hind-quarters, came from where the maintenance equipment was held. A mix of unfamiliar faces with nose-bleeds and even more unfamiliar faces of the long-dead creatures from the surrounding mountains approached as a mass hysteria began to swarm around the exhausted teenager.

Gritting his teeth, Yuri tried to force back a skeletal hand as it chipped away, the dying bodies rushing for the portal as Yuri made efforts to seal it.

Clenching his eyes shut, Yuri's eyes shot back open in narrow focus as an authoritative voice boomed, "You can't go through, it's too late for you already… you're all dead… It won't bring you back!"

All the while, the portal chipped along with the fringed edges of the disintegrating hands, less and less making it through. Yuri took his right and left hands, raising them into the shape of a globe as he began collapsing it smaller and smaller.

As twenty bodies rushed past, several colliding with Yuri as they made their way to the portal, Yuri stumbled back in the way only the awkward teenager could, Conrad grabbed hold around Yuri's waist, pulling him to a defended position, angry that even three others' shoulders brushed so callously against Yuri's.

In a surge of power, Yuri felt the whole room glow blue for a moment before the portal was forced to narrow to an impossibly thin beam, the bodies now enveloped in a soft aura, the hand dropped into its' baser components allowing the portal to shut completely.

Looking at the set of bodies as they began to drop like flies, Yuri felt the tears prickle at the backs of his eyes. Turning to the sudden motion, he spotted the main-hall doors, a large magical circle with three pentagrams and a hexagram intricately drawn in suppressing a small group of four others, the woman in the center seemed annoyed that she even had to put in the effort as she continued to breathlessly chant a sealing-ritual to barricade the doors.

Yuri's eyes rolled under as he collapsed back into Conrad's arms, throwing the brunette slightly out of phase. He re-sheathed his sword before laying Yuri back onto the ground to look over the spent teen.

Conrad noticed the woman approach, taking notice of several slaps to the back of the heads of several intrusive members of the audience.

"Damn, they went through the wrong door. They must have seen me make the circle, bastards." She muttered in a dark voice all too familiar to Anissina's when she was in one of her disappointed moods, minus the colorful bits of course.

Conrad returned his attentions to Yuri.

"Yuri, are you alright?" his hands rested at the sides of Yuri's face as he smoothed down the ivory cheeks, soothing the figure. He sent a tempered glare of more expected-annoyance then rage at the woman. "What was that all about?"

"From the faces I saw, Kiyosuke had minimal success. He was trying to keep the others of the group calm."

Conrad didn't hold out on any hopes for minimal damage to Shin Makoku from their stunt, but was glad the ritual was being held outside of any city limits. "And what exactly was that hand?"

"Oh, just one of the forbidden forces," she placed her hand over her face staving off a headache, "just an all-powerful shinigami." Her eyes widened for a moment before she turned on one of the men. Cuffing his collar, she raised him from the ground and walked him into a wall, gracefully slamming him into it. "Who did you sacrifice?! I said who!"

The man's head fell limply forward, she let the body drop knowing he was just another corpse now.

"Excuse me, I have to find Kiyosuke at once." Conrad continued to give her a measuring look, "Oh don't give me that mistrusting look! In case you missed it, I was keeping them at bay. Gods, they probably murdered someone, it's probably better if I don't look into it." She muttered, notably as she exited to do just that.

"Yuri…" Conrad looked back down at Yuri, then up to see if he could spot Shori, aware at the older Shibuya's absence. At the sounds of thunder, he suspected now just where the Earth maoh's successor must be. He slipped to his feet, raising Yuri up with one arm around his waist, the other holding Yuri's arm slung around his shoulder he drew near the window looking toward the maintenance area.

His eyes tapered thin, witnessing the successor locking out a set of corpse deer, foxes, coyote and raccoons from the area. As Shori changed his concentration from a force-field to beading around the charms, he finished off the set with a yank of the wrist, sending the bodies to the ground.

He panted in a gasp.

Conrad looked back in, at Yuri, the teen seemed to be blinking himself out of sleep. Bowing next to Yuri he put a firm hand on his shoulder, "Yuri, please rest a bit longer."

Yuri's eyes suddenly shot open wide, pupils slitted. They rounded out before Conrad's eyes as Yuri came around.

The teen's mouth gaped, "…Belal… he's dead. Murata said that he was murdered by some freakish monster…" His eyes slimmed down, "…two guesses what it looked like."

Conrad's mouth opened in shock before quickly coming to his senses as Yuri staggered to his feet and approach the water.

Conrad grabbed Yuri by the wrist and pulled him away from the water. "Don't even try it, Yuri, you're in no shape."

"Do you realize what kind of national crisis this is now?! Conrad!" Black eyes flared dangerously, "The king to the second-most sized nation has been murdered and by the reports it sounds like an assassination from Shin Makoku, if I don't get back over there to work on diplomatic relations we could be facing a maj--"

Conrad slapped Yuri hard across the face.

"Your going there is inconsequential right now."

Yuri's eyes went large, shocked at the sudden strike, "Ah, thanks I needed that." Yuri bowed his head, his back followed suit as he fell into Conrad's chest unable to keep his own footing. "I'll have to leave this to Gwendel… and I'll finish up the emigration, that's what we agreed upon wasn't it?"

Conrad nodded once. He held up Yuri's cheek.

Yuri smiled with his eyes closed, though it was apparent to anyone that he was feeling a mixed victory to say the least. "We sent over the one hundred people… so at least we're on our way." Yuri bowed his head; political ramifications were running amok, now, instead of domestic issues. "Tomorrow, we're sending another hundred."

Conrad nodded knowing nothing he said would change a thing.

TBC.


	11. Part 11 Necrosis

Necromancer, Part 11 Necrosis

Yuri fell back into the bed producing an audible plopping sound that softly filled the room, his arms outstretched, he sprawled on the bed, happy to be deposited there.

Conrad entered shortly thereafter, working on the collar of his shirt to unbutton the uniform, Yuri sat up, acting energetic, but was anywhere but there, as evident in his hollowed eyes.

"You should still be asleep."

Yuri shook his head, "Nope, not right now, I don't want to sleep just yet." Yuri couldn't admit it to himself but his nightmares were starting to make him go insane, well, insane in the sense of being unhinged and jumpy. That counted, didn't it? He stretched his arms, in truth, Yuri had slowly become accustom to the post-maoh exhaustion and had found a groove to work within, knowing just how much energy he could expend and still manage as a 'zombified' version of himself… it was the preferred time to sign paperwork, surprisingly.

Conrad sat beside Yuri on the bed, aware that Yuri's shift in body position was in fact an invitation. It didn't go amiss to him the irony that Yuri was suddenly willing to share his bed with his fiancé, now that he had willingly chose that fiancé, at least. "And why is that, Yuri?" He kept just the right amount of adult tone to drive Yuri's libido to his nether-regions and back, gaining him the attentions of a very pink-faced heika.

The blush reached Yuri's ears as he turned, he opened his mouth to say something but there was no way the teenager was going to be able to produce the sounds 'I just wanted to spoon and cuddle with you before going to sleep' so he raised his mouth to smile nervously and leaned his head onto Conrad's shoulder, his eyes half-lidded with a position as suggestive to a potential sleeping arrangement.

Yuri kissed Conrad's shoulder through the top layer of Conrad's uniform, a protective arm wrapped around Yuri's shoulder and Conrad found the niche in his side that fit Yuri into perfectly.

"This is why." Yuri smiled, his half-lidded eyes were growing heavier by the minute.

The teenager never realized when he slipped into his deep, resting slumber, but with how time had frozen for them in that exact instance, it didn't feel that critical.

He found himself in a ponderous dream-state, he could tell that because it was laced with symbolism and imagism and every other ism the teenager had endured in Japanese Literature courses up until now.

Though he was unsure how to interpret key symbols, now as he was a member of the 'evil' team, being the maoh and all, he still found it hard to accept that so much morose color and landscape surrounded him. He mused what it would have been like if he had been a cowardly person what he'd have seen Shin Makoku like, he decided that wasn't the productive line of thoughts, instead he decided to focus in on his dreams to figure out what exactly was going on, maybe then he could be done with the obnoxious nightmares once and for all.

Yes he was aware that a big part of that would be to get all the stress of the instance off of his plate.

Yuri felt like rocks were being added to buckets at either side of his body, hoisted up by his shoulders, in essence he felt the weight of everything pulling him down closer and closer to the dirt. Not one minding hard work, Yuri met the burden in his dream, straightening his back and deciding the direction he should 'walk' in to deposit the rocks somewhere.

As he did so, a lattice-work of an intricate Mazoku-like village surrounded him, and he could envision Julia, how she'd have fit in perfectly in such a place. He shook his head, that made no sense, he and she were the same being, dividing himself like that made no sense! Sure they may have had different aspirations in life… Yuri sighed, well maybe that's not completely true; they both had the big dream of ever-lasting world peace. They both had a blond fiancé they cared for, and they both had Conrad. Yuri wasn't hurt to have to share his life with his previous soul, but still… he wanted it to be special, this feeling, wanted to know _he_, himself, was special. Everyone wanted that, didn't they?

He knew of 500 people who wanted to know he thought of them, too. Yuri felt like he was outside of himself, as his psyche divided into two bodies, in a fetal-posed version of yin and yang, Julia with her brilliant white and he in his majestic black hair, their bodies both giving off the same brightness that though almost white was tinted with a reflective blue, similar to when water casts off sunlight. Both of their hands were clutching the center, holding something just missing contact with each other, he already knew it was the pendant, their physical link to Conrad and each other, like they really needed a physical trinket for that.

It was nostalgia that did it to him, when Yuri remembered receiving the necklace, it made him think farther back to when he first met Adelbert, and Conrad subsequently. Gunter, who explained to him later what that the vice-grip headlock did to him. He had kind of phased out those fuzzy details, but Yuri was starting to wonder, was he really his own person after that or did Adalbert take away more than he gave by unlocking Yuri's soul's previous language.

He also wondered what happened to the souls that the necromancers attached, did they retain their own traits, even though they no longer had full control of themselves? Did they have to endure unseen controls, lingering effects? Things like that would imprint upon someone! It wasn't like Yuri could feign that reincarnation wasn't a legitimate form of continuation either, so just because repercussions weren't immediate didn't mean they weren't present.

Yuri was tossing and turning as all of the thoughts mulled through him, to his favor, even in the fretted dream, it wasn't a nightmare he needed to escape to consciousness, that was at least a small plus. Though, as tired as he was he doubted he'd wake up anyways, he hoped he wouldn't test the theory of a locked-in nightmare.

He turned to his side and felt contact with warm, solid flesh, he curled in knowing just whose body he had beside him. He had so much to think about… it's a bit sad when that too is a revelation.

The night waned on, Yuri locked in that same persistence before dawn came. With dawn, came the time to prepare for the next ritual.

In his mind he envisioned what the newest village of Shin Makoku must look like. In his mind he could see a modern take of an old Japanese village, well, not modern, so much as Mazoku take. Yuri began to blink his eyes open when he felt a gentle hand brush across bits of his exposed shoulder.

Opening eyes, his ebony pair riddled with lingering traces of sleep locked onto expressive brown eyes conveying a strangely warm emotion. Yuri recognized that look, that was the look of Conrad when he'd steal Yuri away for a moment to himself, a mischievous, almost guilty- _almost_ guilty look though his remorse was always short lived.

"You locked Shori out, didn't you?" Yuri smirked at Conrad, Conrad's rise and fall of his eyebrows told Yuri he won the guessing game, when his lips swooped down onto his exposed lips, they told him of his 'prize'.

Leaning back and opening his mouth slightly, sleeper's breath be damned, he let Conrad deepen the passionate kiss, his own hands finding their course through Conrad's soft hair.

"Today is going to be hectic." Yuri mentioned almost dismissively. Hectic wasn't the half of it, he knew he was precariously close to lethal limits, oh he knew. Though he had rested, and a good rest at that, he knew he seldomly went maoh more than once a month, and to do it so close took a lot out of him, but to do so on such a grandiose scale was entirely… well it brought up the bar. "I'm going to request that Kiyosuke goes over with this group." Yuri said, to Conrad it seemed to be out of left-field.

"…?" Yuri could hear it, the dot-dot-dot question mark, earning Conrad a childish smile from his betrothed.

Sobering, Yuri looked at Conrad, "It means I'm sending him over to hold down his peoples' reckless urges. I can't see anyone else who would be appropriate."

"What about your doctor, ah, Doctor Fujihara Minami?"

Yuri shook his head, "Actually, she's who I want to go over in the last group. She helped out last time, didn't she? It isn't selfish of me to set that sort of condition is it? I don't know if they would die or not… but, I just get the feeling it would be better for her to stay on our side;" Yuri smiled, "and away from Anissina and Gwendel for as long as possible for his own sake."

Conrad coughed into his fist to release a well-felt laugh. Yuri looked at him questionably, he had meant that to be a serious, legitimate…

"Nothing, nothing," Conrad assured him. The teenager was probably right about that, no, he was definitely right about that. "Today is going to be a hard day on you, _heika_."

Yuri nudged Conrad's shoulder with his own, "What was that?" His pouted lips made him look like a good kid faking being like a hoodlum, hardly effective in actually gaining street credits, of course.

Conrad's hand found its way on top of Yuri's black mop.

"When this is all over…" Yuri's face darkened at the vision of paper-work and peace-treaties he'd be responsible for, "…I should think up of some sort of reward for myself, like a goal you know?" In his minds eye, he envisioned a poster of a vacation hot-spot with his name all over it, as he did so, his hands spread the imaginary poster on an imaginary wall before him, "You know, like a recuperative vacation maybe?"

"I'm sure something could be arranged for that, though probably not in the immediate future." Conrad said with all honesty.

"…Yeah." Yuri sighed, "I'm almost curious enough to know if they could bring his soul back, reattach it to his body… but the implications would be sticky to say the least… though, it probably would convince him to be peaceful with Shin Makoku…" Yuri shook his head to erase the thought, his skull momentarily an etch-a-sketch, apparently. "No, that's really not the right way to fix things."

Conrad merely looked at Yuri, taxed as to whether he should be in the room if Yuri's inner mind was on 'outer' mode. The teen did have the habit of making strange comments.

"I want to find a way to fix this, but some things can't be fixed can they? They just have to be mended."

The brunette caught the implication, undoing damage versus repairing it to bring it as close to original condition, though with Belal gone, chances are there was already an improvement in the works. He was unsure if Belal had ever called upon his own successor.

Conrad put a firm hand on Yuri's shoulder, "Gwendel is working on the issue as we speak, I'm certain he will find a way to pacify the situation, he is, after all, Shin Makoku's foremost diplomat."

Yuri nodded, "I know, I just want to know _how_ he does it. The two of you are eerily talented at smoothing things over, though you pull back your punches." Yuri thought specifically of how Conrad liked to needle him, let him squirm, then get him off the hook for bizarre customs that the nation had. All of those situations seemed to be reliant on the presence of Wolfram, or used to. Yuri asked rhetorically, "You really did hate that I was engaged to Wolfram, didn't you?" He laughed, "Well, I did too so I guess that makes sense."

Conrad's eyebrow perched instinctually, Yuri was all over the place today, in a strange form of hyper- as his body was as depleted-looking as some of the dried corpses that visited yesterday, he hardly _looked_ energetic and yet, here he was, prattling away. "You're too cute sometimes, Yuri."

Yuri snapped his mouth shut to look at Conrad, baffled at where the statement came from, but deciding it was harmless he merely smiled. "Mm. Oh! I know- we can plan where to go for our honeymoon. Shin Makoku has that custom too, right?"

Conrad smiled, "Well I'm glad you seem energetic."

He heard the distinctive banging sound at the door, "It appears we've been found out."

Yuri sighed, "Shori's right outside the door, isn't he?"

Conrad nodded, "Most likely."

Yuri gathered a deep breath before thrusting himself up, off the mattress to approach the door with a fast pace before pulling it open, Shori stood before him, giving him a dark glower.

While he didn't outwardly show it, Yuri definitely gulped, he was under the scowl of an annoyed older brother, he was sure it was for similar reasons as the temperamental Conrad, yesterday. Really, Murata had a big mouth! He knew he should have specified a bit more, to ask for it not to come back to them… well, given the results maybe it wasn't a horrible idea but still…!

Yuri glanced downward, he didn't have enough energy to deal with Shori's fits, regardless of how 'charged' he was for the ritual. Actually, he just wanted everything mentally organized and categorized, prioritized to be dealt with and done with. Conrad just had a weird way of wording it, though he was still sure Conrad was right.

He found the glare travel over his head and aim at Conrad, he turned his neck to glance at the sight of his older brother's glare.

"You can't think he's recovered enough to really let him go through with this again today!" Shori growled.

"…He doesn't have input on it, ah, sorry Conrad." Yuri winked one eye shut and held up an apologetic right hand, half-bowing his head. It was true, Conrad's opinion was anticipated, but he also knew Yuri's stubbornness would overrule it, so to prevent needless fights he would give Yuri his typical freedom with stipends; that was just how he worked as a vassal, and be damned if Yuri didn't like that style. It complimented his other retainers' oppressive nature and kept him happy, though he knew not to get too attached to such a straight-forward flow lest he become spoiled. He already knew just how much work was waiting for him back in his office. Piling… and piling. Has anyone ever died from cave-ins of paperwork? He'd heard of it, but he was unsure if that was an urban legend or actually based on reality.

Shori's glare refocused on Yuri, though his eyes glossed over apologetically, if you squinted and caught it at the exact right moment, as he raked over from Conrad to Yuri, returning his glower. "Then I'm completely against it. You're needlessly endangering yourself, it's this sort of foolish brash behavior that gets you into trouble!"

Conrad crossed his arms, intent to watch the drama before jumping in.

Yuri rolled his eyes, big brother was in lecture-mode apparently. Though, he did deserve it, he was pretty sure. "Come on, don't be like that, big brother." Yuri said with just enough of a sweetening of his tone to disarm his brother, Conrad's arms dropped to his sides, his mouth opened in shock, momentarily, before he regained his composure.

Shori cocked his head to the side, he blushed however faintly, fixing his glasses he returned to his chastising gaze. "Don't think you can just get out of it by sweet-talking me… Yu-chan."

Yuri internally gave himself a point, Shori's tone no longer as sharp as it had started, that and the lecture mode seemed to be disengaged. In fact, he tallied a second point for himself.

"If this is about yesterday, about not telling you… Conrad already gave me a stern talking-to and I won't hide something like that again. It was wrong, I understand. I just didn't want to upset anybody."

"It has nothing to do with that, though that pisses me off, too! …And you! Stealing my brotherly moments… Seriously, you should learn your place, brother trumps fiancé when it comes to lectures!" He touched the side of Yuri's face, the teen was unsure of whether to pull back or tolerate, though he did make a flinching gesture of escape at first, his eyes wide to anticipate any of his brother's weird moves he might try.

What those weird moves might be ranged from innocent wet-willies to creepy brother-complex things he didn't want to think about.

"I don't want you to proceed."

Yuri lowered his face, averting gazes before returning it with a strong glare of his own, "I already took that into consideration. I'm still going to proceed with this."

Shori dropped his hand, "How do _you_ manage to reason with him?" He asked Conrad in a heated, barbed fashion.

Yuri quickly interjected, "He doesn't. He just lets me have whatever I want allllllll the time." He rolled his eyes demonstrating his own sarcasm, though it was laced with some truths.

"We compromise." Conrad corrected Yuri, giving him a playful yet tempered view, not quite sure how much he appreciated being told he spoils Yuri endlessly, though the idea of spoiling Yuri hardly put him off. He just didn't think Yuri needed to become a kept, high-maintenance wife, well, close enough.

"Then where did you compromise to his demands this time? I don't like your trade-off! You had a lousy return by the looks of it."

Conrad raised his shoulders, "Good for you, though I don't _quite_ care."

Yuri mussed up his own hair in frustration, "Ack, stop bickering. He," Yuri pointed to Conrad, "keeps me in check, and did so yesterday, you," Yuri redirected his pointing hand at his brother after rotating it through the air, "keep me anchored. I'm going to have Dr. Fujihara draw up some casting barricades around the pools this time in anticipation. It should be quicker this time without any little kids."

"Alright, fine." Shori caved, Yuri acting like this was too cute for him to reject, he even called him big brother, really he didn't have the heart to fight him on it, so as a respectable older brother, he caved to his kid brother's demands.

"We'll set it up then, I'll help her with guard duty, you're sure we can trust her though?"

"…If you trusted her to hack into my skull and suck out blood with a vacuum you had better not be asking me if you should trust her!" Yuri was momentarily terrorized at the concept of an untrustworthy person playing with his unshielded brain.

"…Ah, good point. She is an upstanding sort, so I'll give her some credit, though she also works with those other guys."

"She helped us didn't she? I think she knows the greater good is with cooperation. She wants everyone to get across, and that requires me as functional as possible, even if that means I'm only as good as a tool to her…" Yuri paused for a moment, being a means to an end like that was an odd position to be in.

"I'm sure she's harmless… to you, Yuri." Conrad added, thinking to himself how much she really did act like a certain redhead feisty noblewoman he knew. "It seems to be her personality type."

"See? Okay, so we'll trust her. Conrad's got a great judge of character when it comes to this sort of thing."

Shori gave Conrad a petty, annoyed, but half-felt glare. Yuri's arm draped around Conrad's arm, squeezing it in a slight, polite hug.

"So, we should confer with everyone then eat, or maybe eat first, I'm starved."

"Alright, I'll tell everyone to meet at the main hall again. Go ahead and eat, I'll catch up with you there, Yu-chan."

"Thanks, Shori-nii." Yuri tugged Conrad's arm signaling for them to go ahead, hoping to ignore the ever growing blush. Gods, that was why he never liked calling his brother that. He was pretty sure Shori really did have a brother-complex, and as the _brother_ of that complex, that was _very_ disturbing to him.

--To Be Continued.


	12. Part 12 Nearing the End of it All

Breakfast, and the rest of the morning had been uneventful, if one ignored the common Shori-moments as he attempted to bully the ever-confident Conrad. No, once that was looked past, the morning had run smoothly. Everything in place, Yuri went to the massive tubs to inspect the progression of the magical rituals, and as sure as he was that this would have produced a small uproar not one complaint landed on him within the structure.

He wasn't under the disillusion that this was because he had pacified his subjects, so much as the reality that the charms kept them back rather well. He was proven right when he had snuck out to use the rest-room only to be swarmed by a dozen or so complaining voices. He never felt so relieved for his brother to grab his arm to tug him around, the older Shibuya quickly produced a paper talisman that seemed to quiet their boiling rage into a simmering annoyance and then down to rational people walking away.

Yuri looked worriedly at the pool, if Ulrich wasn't keeping up her own shields that meant she was either unable to due to conflicts or exhaustion, both of which to Yuri was a frightening thought. He let out a lengthy sigh, his brother mistook it for relief. If anything it made Yuri even more tense, wondering the merits of picking a fight, after all, if they targeted Shin Makoku that meant it lasted far longer than it did on Earth and Gwendel had enough on his plate as is, with help of this group.

Suddenly, Yuri felt a chill, the repercussions of chasing soldiers so aggressively from his borders could be interpreted as military movements, though saying it was in response to military presence… but there were still casualties, which meant… Yuri ruffled his own hair vigorously, he didn't know what it meant! He wanted to, but he just couldn't figure out all the angles.

Things had just started to progress smoothly, too! Yuri's black orbs darkened. He walked back into the main bath house to find Conrad and Kiyosuke.

Yuri pointed and opened his mouth, but quickly thought against it. He was angry at the situation, an inevitable, regrettable, irreversible situation. Though the people at fault were in front of them, they were also victims who had seen no other way to reach for help. He opened his mouth, this time his eyes much calmer, "Kiyosuke, you must stop your people from acting with hostilities. They trust you so you must get through to them. I can't keep sending them through if they insist of destroying things, I can't let a small faction cause a country- no, a world misery."

The maoh looked down, what he was saying, he was making it sound like the ends and the means were measured in lives, that his duty was utilitarian. Yuri wasn't sure which life philosophy he really belonged to, he was pretty sure it was too idealistic to have consequences, he just wanted everyone to be happy, but he thought that maybe fear, in this case only, could motivate them to strengthen their resolve.

Kiyosuke's eyes shot wide as his hand shot forward to grab Yuri's collar, "How can you say such a thing! We are all trying very hard to fight off the hysteria! You have no idea what it's like to not know when the person next to you will just drop, dead, or if you'll go before that even comes to be!"

He took a confident breath, not willing to let any fear show in his own reactions, he held up a hand to keep Conrad where he stood. "Oh really? Here, I was under the impression that I didn't know when your 

people would destroy a village human or Mazoku, or just try to kill me and use my body as a puppet to get what you want. I understand very well how difficult this is, on all parties involved, and I am doing more than advised to keep this going. If this is your 100-percent, I need 110-percent. Please realize that I wouldn't ask if it wasn't essential. If you can't do this I have to take a very different approach, one that involved cutting off contact, not transporting people." Yuri bowed his head, "Now get a hold of yourself and then get a hold of your people, if you have to lock yourselves in some summoning circles to contain yourself, get to it. I can't even take this as your best efforts, you just aren't thinking hard enough."

Kiyosuke's hand dropped, he bowed, "I understand. This time we'll send over those prone to react… more erratically. Though, please realize I won't be able to keep them controlled until they've crossed the portal, it's outside of human nature!"

"That's acceptable, as long as you bring only the approved amount this time."

Kiyosuke nodded, submitting to the teenager's demands.

Yuri waited for Kiyosuke to exit the room before sliding his back against Conrad, his knees dropping him a surprised decimeter before he regained his composure, Conrad's arms not so willing to return to their original position as they locked around Yuri's front.

"It was a very moving and powerful speech, I'll tell Gunter of it when we arrive back."

Yuri smiled at Conrad, "We'll leave this little bit about the crash after the adrenalin rush out, right?"

"Of course, _heika_, after all history is written by those left and not necessarily those who are right."

Yuri blushed, "You think what I said was wrong…? But I thought that… I mean, I was bluffing with half of it… and, you know I'd never really abandon--"

Conrad put his hand on Yuri's cheek, "Oh I have an idea what you would do, but I don't think that would be wrong."

Yuri sighed, "Oh thank goodness, and it's Yuri by the way! I heard you try to slip it in!" His pout quickly lightened the mood, or so Yuri thought. Conrad was smiling at him, and keeping conversation whimsical, but those brown eyes were scanning the perimeter quickly as if expecting a sudden rebuttal with something a bit more pointed than sharp words. As much as he thought Minami was trustful, he didn't quite care for Kiyosuke, he was far more emotional and unpredictable.

It made him think back to the chiasm, how Soushou affected people and Mazoku alike, and more specifically he remembered how desperate people could do desperate, stupid, unpredictable things.

Maybe the removal of the box didn't just affect the ground but those near it, a bit more than Bob had originally thought. Maybe, as Conrad's hunch pushed him, Kiyosuke was starting to go berserk himself and that would be a very bad thing indeed. He thought all this while scanning the room for motion.

Kiyosuke knew the entrance and exit points as the leader of his faction, he also knew how to sway his people one way or the other, and with that in mind, Conrad was beginning to agree with Yuri's assessment that sending him to Shin Makoku earlier rather than later was a much safer bet, though he doubted Yuri thought of it for just the same reasons.

He tickled a soft spot on Yuri's side earning him a coy laugh, even with how his mood was growing darker, he couldn't allow anything to pull down his sun just yet. Yuri needed to be radiant to counter-act the darkness, and he needed to be as energetic as possible to do it- all he swore to himself that he'd do.

If Yuri became too weak there was a very good chance it could kill him, and Conrad wasn't about to let that even chance to come to pass, and with that, he decided what to do, "Yuri, you should relax for now."

Yuri nodded once to walk to the guarded locker room, Conrad escorting him.

"This isn't the most charming of king's quarters I've seen, a men's locker room."

"Ah really? I'll pass your complaint on to the staff, what would make it better?"

Yuri glared at Conrad, "Don't you dare… you know this isn't supposed to be used in such a way, it's a perfectly fine, legitimate men's locker room… just a lousy Maoh-resting-quarter."

"You seem a bit put-off, Alaska later how to improve it."

Yuri blanched, he didn't just replace 'I'll ask you' with Alaska did he? And yet, with his track record… Yuri let out a nervous laugh, as he did whenever Conrad exposed his Achilles heel, "Ha… ha…ha uh I think we should check on Shori, to see how well the preparations are going. I feel much better now." Yuri lied, until Conrad leaned down to kiss him.

Suddenly, with those gentle, sweet lips over his, Yuri's eyes flickered shut, and for that moment he did feel so much better than he could readily recall, as Conrad lied Yuri's back onto the bench he could only feel an improvement until Conrad pulled back, scanning for any ill-placed movement.

"We'll continue later, if you'd like, Yuri."

"…Ah, yes please." Yuri coughed out, trying to sound as dignified as a person sprawled on his back could, he felt bright red, but Conrad was right, he didn't have the energy for that sort of thing, though he felt somehow he could manage to find it, somewhere, if Conrad had let him try.

To Be Continued.


	13. 13 The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Necromancer, part 13 The King is Dead, Long Live the King!

Yuri's heart was currently located in his throat as his stomach busily knotted himself. He knew he was nervous about this, but this time preparations had been made, the first time they hadn't known what to expect as much as they did now. And, so with that, Yuri entered the bath-house ready to summon a portal.

This time really did seem different, though. Last time Murata had told him the steps, how to move through with the actions, but this time Murata was staying strangely silent, as was Ulrich. That was making Yuri antsy, it was all on his shoulders, and to top it off he didn't know when they'd go berserk again, he decided that if was out of the question, it was more of the anticipation of how long it would take versus it actually happening as that seemed definite.

Sighing out he took in several meditative breaths, he was nervous, and it was absolutely legitimate. He didn't have much choice though, everything was eating up too much time. So far, in Shin Makoku a month's time had passed. Belal's death had become news throughout their world, and Yuri, the maoh of the country being blamed for the attacks, wasn't even able to smooth over the people of his alliances or country to dissuade any acts of aggression.

Yuri closed his eyes, thinking to himself that a big part of this really was his fault, his ineptitudes as a ruler, he had made it clear that he had wanted to collect the boxes, and with that, Sousho had been released upon Earth, those lingering effects landing on the Mazoku who were sensitive to it in some of the worst of ways.

Then there was Belal, it would be a lie to say Belal wasn't easily swayed by that same darkness, and the fact that this was almost a combined front on behalf of a dead and destroyed entity… well, Even Shinou did manage to remain after being purified, so the fact that some darkness remained meant Yuri had another task to complete.

He exhaled strongly before looking at Conrad, "Ah, this time is a little different. Murata and Ulrich haven't contacted me yet, so I'll be opening the portal on my own. If any disruption starts up, I'm closing the portal down completely until things clear up."

Conrad nodded, agreeing with that sentiment completely. He watched Kiyosuke with the attentions that caught the movement of individual strands of hair, he could cite the numbers of beads of sweat on the collar of his shirt where it touched his neck, if someone were to ask.

Yuri touched Conrad's shoulder, "You're staring, we need to keep them as calm as possible, remember?" Yuri smiled playfully at Conrad, striking the brunette about just how much Yuri looked like Julia at moments like this.

Of course, not because of physical attributes, black hair and eyes did not Julia make, nor did the underdeveloped physique of a teenaged boy, and yet that same smile was shared. He minimized his overt glare on Kiyosuke, scanning the room constantly for the slightest sign of dissention.

Yuri nodded his head once more, "Everyone, gather around. I am going to open the portal, move through in an orderly fashion, it will remain open for no more than 10 minutes so we require that you move as you were informed earlier."

The crowd made muffled sounds, many of excitation to finally get to go 'home' and to the safety of Shin Makoku, others with the prospect of new lives and responsibilities, wondering how the others were making out.

Yuri smiled softly, he felt warm seeing them like this, "Alright. I'm opening the portal, and… Welcome Home to my country, to Shin Makoku," as Yuri touched the water and formed a swirl of energetic blue, the world around him darkened.

He had closed his eyes to focus. The group moved through efficiently thanks to the micromanagement of a certain set of Mazoku, including Jose and Minami, and a handful of other personal employees of Bob. As Conrad stood personal guard over Yuri, he could tell Yuri's body was weakening dramatically, he watched the timer carefully. With almost the entire group through, he could tell things were going sour when Yuri's eyes snapped open, unseeing until a fine slit appeared in their centers.

With his physical concentration up, the Maoh expanded the portal to sweep in the stragglers before his power went past it's limit, the portal's light dissipated only to reappear several times making it flicker as the Maoh began to reel back in his own powers to collect himself.

His eyes again became unseeing as he held up his arms to steady the spread out portal, knees buckling the teenager with darkening bags under his eyes proceeded to go under the veil of dark, empty sleep.

As the portal began to flicker, Conrad reached for Yuri's shoulder to pull him back, shaking him. He caught a glimpse of those shaded black orbs to spot the ever-changing shape of the pupils as they transformed from orbs to slits, and as the body slumped to the floor, collapsing in exhaustion back to ovals then natural, circular pin-pricks.

"YURI!" Conrad laid Yuri's body to rest draped against his legs, his thigh acting as a head-rest as Minami approached with a not-so-little black leather bag, as she pulled at the locking device to spring it open, she fished out a needle and vial. Checking the label she seemed content that she had acquired the right one as the needle quickly filled up to the halfway mark, her hand dove to Yuri's neck, going for his carotids to check his faint pulse.

Pulling the needle from the vial's spongy top, she grabbed an alcohol-based wipe within a foil wrap, with slightly questionable sterilization techniques, she bit at the top left corner, her hand pulling down from the top right corner to the bottom, then pulled out the towelette before spitting out the foil from her mouth.

Swiping it around Yuri's elbow, she pulled his limp arm toward her with a strong tug, keeping it at an overly extended angle, she quickly found the spot she had previously inserted an IV and connected the dot …with a needle of powerful stimulants to snap the teenager from his deteriorating state.

"You, come here." She pointed at Shori sharply, "Start transferring some of your maryoku, He shouldn't need too much, just enough to bring him to, like smelling salts."

The black-haired older brother gave her a strangled look, he put his hand on his brother's cheek, "Yuu-chan, Yuu-chan can you hear me?"

Soft blue ambiance shrouded his paling skin, Conrad was the first to catch the clenching and unclenching closed eyes, Yuri was trying to pull himself out of the dregs of the unconscious realm, and rather forcefully by the looks of it. His eyes fluttered open as he spotted the room, recognition at first absent.

Shori let his hand drop from Yuri's face. "Yuu-chan…"

Yuri blinked several times, "Huh, what… is going on here…?"

Conrad took this as his cue to make his mark, Yuri was in the air being carried bridal-style before Yuri could even register the confusion of being on the floor and then in the grips of his incredibly handsome fiancé.

A drunken hand found the fabric of Conrad's shirt as he tried to pull himself more upright, not fully grasping his air-borne status.

"No, no I need to get back to…" Yuri swooned. "Belal… he _isn't_ dead. I… just found out… it was a body-double, he's using it as propaganda to start a war… I have to…" While everyone present wanted to silence him, challenge him, he beat them to it by fainting.

Though Conrad wouldn't say it, his stomach was churning, tumbling worse than when he had gone on that 'roller-coaster', that's what Yuri had called it, if he recalled. His skin blanched, carrying Yuri to the master's suite they had reserved and guarded with magical circles, he laid Yuri in the center of the sizable futon.

Yuri, panting in softly as an oxygen mask was placed over his mouth and nose, was not making it any easier on Conrad to remind himself to stay calm.

If Belal was alive what was all of this hurry for? This, all of this was chewing away Yuri's life-force for some power-trip and head-games of a sadistic ruler. Conrad took in a few deep breaths to steady himself, he squeezed Yuri's hand content to know that the hand attached to the figure in the bed had squeezed back, however faintly as it may have been; Yuri was alive and that meant the sun was only setting, only resting up to shine another day.

Though, Conrad also wondered if no one knew that Belal was actually still alive would that be enough justification for him to slip in and kill him? With Yuri looking like this the thought was becoming very tempting, though he knew better than to voice that sort of dark thought. He kissed Yuri's hair-line as black orbs blinked at him owlishly.

The confusion seemed to have disappeared, but where it left, a marked pain and achiness seemed to settle in, leaving the teen to wonder if there ever really would be a way to bring peace with a person so 

vehemently opposed to the happiness of his own people. He supposed it was ironic that where Belal seemed to go out of his way to spite his own that Yuri, the MAOH, the king of demons, would go to help them, even with costs like this.

He squeezed Conrad's hand harder, he didn't feel like thinking, but he thought it would be nice to feel, well, to feel Conrad near him.

Conrad seemed to catch onto the hint as he sat on the bed, leaning in to act as an additional body-warmer and over-sized pillow, that boy seemed to love that aspect of his larger body.

To Be Continued.


	14. Part 14 Near Death Experiences

Yuri had a migraine as he laid back in bed, the only bits of comfort being allowed to his exhausted body were the presence of his life-sized Conrad pillow and body-warmer, and the knowledge that he was that much closer to being done with this taxing endeavor.

Swallowing hard, Yuri decided he was sick of having something over his mouth as he took off the oxygen mask. He groaned as he rolled in closer to Conrad's body, expressing his general achiness. "…Tomorrow, I'll have to…"

"You're staying in bed even if I have to be here to pin you to it." Conrad said firmly, well that caught the maoh's attention, he wasn't even sure if Conrad had fallen asleep. He actually was rather impressed that Conrad hadn't saying how groggy he felt, he always assumed things like that were contagious, tiredness that is.

Yuri gave Conrad an implicating love-stare. "Oh really, when you say it like that it doesn't sound so bad…" Yuri shook his head, "wait, no that's not what I mean to say…"

Conrad's eyebrow arched to auto-correct Yuri to say, no really you mean you'll tolerate being in bed without resistance. He could tell the deathly-serious glare coming from his protective fiancé.

"This time was far too close, Yuri. You are in no shape to continue this sort of over-exertion, you have to stop for now."

Yuri nodded, "I know that this is really tiring me out, I'm absolutely exhausted but that doesn't change the facts…"

"Facts?" Conrad obviously wanted Yuri to elaborate, and distract him from escape efforts.

"Belal. He found out about their sacrifice and had a body-double take its place. He killed one of his own to make it look like aggression." Yuri sighed, "Not like that lets them off the hook for murdering someone, but it wouldn't have been an international issue if Belal had just stayed out of it." Yuri groaned, "Murata's been so busy working with all of this, and Gwendel is currently working the peace-circuits though right now, with Belal being exposed they're playing it as if he manipulated a situation to manufacture a war. It doesn't help the countries leery of our peace though… He's trying to make this a catalyst to start a war and the others are…" Yuri grabbed his head, he was getting a …larger… migraine.

Conrad rubbed concentric circles up and down Yuri's back, the teenager leaning over in his seated position on the futon.

"Sending more people over right now won't necessarily help, right now you need to regain your strength. What good would it be to return to Shin Makoku on your death-bed?"

Yuri blushed, "I know that… but, but there are some things only I can do over there."

"That's all the more reason to go back in full strength."

"I get it, I get it. I'll stay in bed and rest up before we make another trip."

The look in Conrad's eyes wasn't that of victory so much as of a look asking for elaboration, it read clearly as 'and that would be…?'

"Hopefully that will be in two days."

Conrad petted the side of Yuri's head, pulling him to his chest. "I'm glad to hear it."

Yuri blushed, embarrassed about this turn of events, he never thought of himself as the delicate flower-sort. "I just wish I knew how Belal knew about it. I don't really see him running with a group of Mazoku on mahjong-night, so for him to know what they were doing…"

"If I may make a suggestion, though remember you plan on staying in bed for at least two days."

Yuri nodded, knowing he'd need to take whatever he heard with a grain of salt.

"Don't you think there is a potential that Sousho is involved somehow?"

Yuri's eyes went wide, he flung the covers off and was on his feet before a hand on his wrist and his own body swaying pulled him back to the futon with a _thwump_! His head was spinning, and he was sure a large sum of blood was going there, he highly doubted from blushing either.

He shook his head, Conrad had just warned him about that, no less. "I have to message Murata about that, then."

"I'm sure he's already realized."

"Are you implying I'm just slow?" Yuri gave Conrad a wounded look.

"Not slow so much as preoccupied. You're working on a completely different set of information, I only noticed because of how Kiyosuke was acting." Conrad knew the importance of nursing Yuri's pride, he was an adolescent after all, and it was very easy to damage the ego in that age-bracket.

His eyes were growing wide, "So you knew that but thought it was okay to send reinforcements to Shin Makoku for Sousho to use? Or were you thinking something else? Tell me you were thinking something else…"

"The reason they are going over is similar to why we went to the chiasm. Please recall that within Shin Makoku they will be able to counter-balance themselves and fortify themselves against Sousho."

Yuri let out a sigh, "I guess that makes sense…" his head slumped into Conrad's shoulder, "Sousho is fear, so if you counter-act that major fear, you take out the ground from under his feet, right?" Yuri more explained then asked, but all the same it got the point across.

"By the looks of it; though, _heika_ would know best about it. You did, after all, defeat Sousho single-handedly." Conrad smiled with eyes closed as he continued to bolster Yuri's sense of self.

Yuri sighed adding in an annoyed looked at Conrad, "I really don't think I'd say it like that." He looked down, "I feel even more exhausted now." His body slumped down, trailing Conrad's chest before he landed in his lover's lap, head resting on his thigh.

A strong, comforting hand laced through Yuri's black hair, gently avoiding the right side.

"Why is it always _so much_ to do? It's not fair." Yuri whined. Conrad merely kept his sympathetic look plastered on his face, genuinely apologetic that so much had to fall on Yuri's shoulders.

That said, however, it only strengthened his resolve to not allow Yuri to take on any more, he had advisors and friends to help him with these other tasks that the young maoh was trying to keep to himself, if only the maoh came to that realization, too.

"Acknowledging your own limitations is important, Yuri."

"Why's that? It doesn't make the work go away." Yuri grumbled, thinking about it further, though, he did find that sometimes that actually did make it go away. Usually all the way over to Gwendel's desk; though, he wasn't very fond of just dumping things on others.

"Why? You can rely on others to help you, of course." Conrad put his hand on Yuri's shoulder, his other hand moving up and down Yuri's side as he laid on his lap. "In this instance, for example, we could talk about possible strategies to deal with this."

Yuri turned to face Conrad, "You're too good for me." Yuri muttered sleepily, his eyes flickering closed. "Well, what would you suggest?"

Watching Yuri stave off sleep, his eyes closed as he continued the conversation, Conrad carefully chose his words and tones to be the softest, most soothing to allow Yuri to be coaxed into sleep.

After half an hour, Yuri did seem determined to come to grips with the problem, Conrad finally won out and the younger man gave in to his body's wants and needs, curled like a cat fast asleep on Conrad's lap. Conrad pulled up the blanket over Yuri's figure, draping it over him careful not to disturb his position, not wanting to awaken him.

What Belal did was to inspire a war, would that mean as the aggressor he could legitimately be punished in a world-court and dealt with, or if not a world-court, the court of public opinion? The cry-wolf theory of assassinations? Conrad really couldn't see anything negative about the world being rid of the tyrant, though he really didn't want that sort of instance to taint Yuri's hands.

A heated knock on the door left Conrad thoroughly annoyed. He could only think of so many people with the personality type to assault the door, but neither of the two would, given the circumstances. He gingerly reached for his sword, if it wasn't a friendly source that only left so many other options. He slipped out from under Yuri, pulling the cover over his features.

Stirring, Yuri's eyes opened to spot Conrad pulling the cover over his face. "Ne… Conrad what's going on…?"

Conrad put a finger tip to his lips signaling for Yuri to be quiet, smiling gently. Yuri never felt comfortable with that look, sure it made _him_ feel safe but only at Conrad's expense and he really hated the idea of harm coming to his beloved knight. That look brought him around faster than smelling salts ever could. He sat up indignantly, giving Conrad a concerned look.

"It's alright, I'm just going to go check, please wait here, I'll be _right_ back."

Yuri's hand palmed at the fabric of the plush comforter as he sat up in the bed, legs fully extended and pointed out at 45-degree angles.

His reassuring smile did only so much to dissuade the discomfort etching Yuri's brow, he approached the door, looking through the eye-piece. His eyes narrowed, seemingly displeased at what he saw on the other side of the door.

"Stay here! Don't move, do you understand me?"

Yuri swallowed back hard, now shaken quite extensively as Conrad grabbed a bag of what looked like purifying salts drawing an outline along the bed's border with it.

Yuri nodded once.

"Good, I'll take care of everything, so don't worry." Conrad said, softening his tone, he saw how the teenager hid his tremble at the sudden shock.

"Conrad, what's going on?!"

Yuri looked into the brunette's eyes, oh gods, they did summon something didn't they?

He pushed himself upward only to fall back into the bed, he couldn't believe how totally weak he was. He felt useless at that exact instance.

Seemingly pleased with Yuri's forced compliance, Conrad exited the room, Yuri able to catch a glimpse from the doorway the array of what he would have described as a demon-parade, warped looking skeletons some with skin, muscle and blood still dangling from the carcasses.

He covered his mouth, that really was a hell-on-earth vision behind that door, so what was Conrad thinking going INTO that willingly?! Yuri tried a third time to force himself upright and out of the bed, again failing miserably.

He wanted so much to be able to be useful to Conrad, he didn't even know why the others would be using their maryoku, until a set of dead birds came crashing through the window, as they flew themselves at the bed they his an invisible barrier surrounding the bed then fall to the ground truly lifeless again. He saw a growing pile of corpses, his arm shielded his face, horrified at the level of effort those pitiable beasts were putting in.

He slid further from the center of the bed, trying to distance himself from the window and growing mound of birds.

Several other dead animals, including a very spritely looking bear entered through the same window causing Yuri to quickly whip around from the border of the bed he had been coming closer to, upon feeling the proximity of the horns of a breed of deer he wasn't familiar with, it looked like an antelope for crying out loud, those weren't even indigenous to Japan!

As the bear threw itself at the barrier, the corpse dropped on the opposite side, still unable to cross the salt obstruction. Yuri glared to see if he could spot the charms or tiles that had to be controlling them. He saw a snake crawling through, next, he shuddered, he wasn't particularly _fond_ of snakes. Especially albino pythons The snake butted its head in vain against the invisible barricade.

When a person began to make his way through the window, Yuri swallowed hard. Not another corpse, this was getting too much for his heart to take, he'd never seen so much death before!

This opponent didn't seem to have the same problems with the barricade, however, to Yuri's utmost dismay. The figure walked up to the line of salt. Yuri's pupils shrank to pin-pricks in size when he spotted something he hadn't expected at all, this person's chest was rising and falling, this person was still alive!

As he noticed this, the man seemed to smirk, enjoying Yuri's horrified face. With two fingers, he reached inside the salt line and pulled toward himself, breaking the barricade.

A crashing wave of psychic energy crashed over Yuri, it was overwhelming, the strength of this resentment and bitterness. It made Yuri's lungs constrict, the way the force was crushing into him. Yuri's eyes began to roll under, and as he fell forward into the man's expectant arm he could see a faint trace of an over-extended shadow. No, something like that wasn't normal even with the necromancers, this was something else entirely…

The leering smile, he'd seen that smile before, but where? His mind landed upon it just as he went completely under. Sousho.

Yuri was pulled out from the window being carried through a pathway becoming ever-shrouded in fog making everything around him grow darker. As his eyes began to loll open, all he knew was he had no clue where he was, and that he felt completely alone, isolated and powerless. In short, Yuri felt exactly what Sousho wanted, he felt afraid.

As the last of the dead animals dropped, Conrad began to look around for any of the typical marks of the necromancers, however, no talismans of any sort were apparent, and even Minami seemed to be at a complete loss, shaking her head.

"This isn't the work of any of our own." Her eyes narrowed, "It does bear an awful lot like the works of certain forbidden elements however." She muttered under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. To her, forbidden element was synonymous to Shinigami, to Conrad it was Sousho. "This is why you're not supposed to summon Shinigami, normal people, well- necromancers, don't have the power to put them back."

Conrad turned to face her, "Shinigami… you said that last time, but what are they? I know it means gods of death or grim-reaper, but if you have literature… it isn't like a shroud of dark smoke that…"

"Emcompasses the body, darkening and devouring it to do the dark design laid out for it in exchange for its freedom, hence why you have to have a sacrificial offering to use as a vessel."

Conrad's eyes narrowed, why that DID sound familiar, didn't it. "Yuri!" Conrad turned around; sprinting toward the chamber he had left Yuri in he arrived to find it in disarray.

Broken glass and layers of stacked corpses were the first clue of something horribly wrong, well, after the missing Yuri clue. When he spotted the break in the purification circle, though…

Minami entered the room in time to see Conrad hovering over the broken circle. "Only a shinigami would have the power to break a purification circle when summoned…"

"…We have to find Yuri-heika at once."

"Why would the shinigami want him though?" She contemplated the over-all use of power, however, an all-powerful being like a shinigami didn't seem the likely candidate to confess it's own weakness to try to accrue more.

"Because Yuri has defeated Sousho before, right now, though… Right now he's in no shape to do it. This would be Sousho's only chance." He said, while scouring for any indications of where it would have taken him.

Seeming to pick up on this, Minami offered, "These waters are purified, so it would want to go where it is strongest and Shibuya-kun is weakest. The further from water and purified land, the better for it, in that case."

"Do you have any idea where that might be?"

She nodded once, "Where Kiyosuke had kept the others that we suspected would go berserk. Necromancers don't exactly tend to like 'holy' lands or shrines, so they have polluted, tainted grounds."

Shori panted as he rushed through the room, catching the tail-end of the conversation, "So this Sousho's been using you all to get at Yuu-chan…" He glared at no one in particular, the rage in full boil, and yet Conrad's anger seemed to be just as fierce if not more driven.

"It seems he was using the others as a tool to get this opportunity." She shook her head, "I'll take you to where he's most likely headed, but the problem with that is… if Shibuya-kun was the only one able to defeat him, for the record he'd be the only one ever to do so. In his state, it isn't like he'll be able to, and I guarantee you none of us can, either."

"We don't need to defeat it, necessarily. We just need to get Yuri back and somewhere safe for him to recover."

"That is true."

"Wait, you called it a shinigami before, didn't you?" Shori asked.

Nodding once, Minami added, "Before, they summoned a shinigami to try to summon a force to be of service to keep open the portal. It's a forbidden element."

"Then if it's a forbidden element there must be a reason why it was forbidden."

"Of course, because it can't be sealed…"

"…No, I mean for you to _know_ that means that someone eventually found a way to stop it!"

"…Not exactly." Minami sighed, "While it's true it eventually stopped it wasn't because anyone could stop it. The only thing able to do it was severing it from the source of power and waiting for it to starve… to die on it's own."

"Well, that's something doable…"

"…It took fifteen years after being cornered and hundreds of thousands of lives. It's not doable."

Shori's eyebrow twitched. "How did it get severed though? That might be enough for us to get Yuu-chan back."

Minami shook her head, "I'm not that familiar with it, no more than that it happened on Shin Makoku, and not on Earth. We don't even know who summoned it, or if it was summoned at that time. It was forbidden because it was never tamed."

"Shori, we need to get in touch with the others in Shin Makoku. You're the only one able to create a portal. We need the council of the Great Sage and Shinou."

Shori's eyebrow rose, "You mean friend of my little brother Murata Ken and the creep who tried to steal Yuu-chan's body for his own?"

"…Sousho tried to steal Yuri's body, he was possessing Shinou's spirit before-hand. He wanted Yuri for his power and physical being." Conrad corrected, "Which, at the moment he is very near in acquiring, so I suggest you hurry, Shori."

Shori glowered, "You want us to figure out how defeat Sousho before even worrying about getting Yuri back, don't you think it would be better to do this the other way around, before he has the potential to hurt him?"

Conrad's face was dark, "I don't think we'll have two chances. If we botch a rescue mission it might be too late to try again, if you set up a meeting with them in Shin Makoku, the time variance will give us enough of an opportunity to formulate a plan and then have the means to seal Sousho immediately thereafter. This is the most realistic way to surmount it."

Shori's eyes held back the contempt as he gave a defeated sigh, "Fine. I'll be back in fifteen minutes, in that time I expect you to have the location Yuu-chan's being kept."

"I will." Conrad stated staunchly.

With that, Shori moved with purpose toward the sink, leaving Conrad to discuss strategy with Minami.

To Be Continued.


	15. Part 15 Nothing Left

Looking around, all Yuri could see was a bleak world painted black and darker black, only the slightest forms of globules shifted before his eyes, and for as much as his vision was seeming to fail him, his other senses found it important to be muffled, too.

His own sense of location was gone, he imagined zero-gravity in water would feel just like this, no up, no down, no left, right, north, south, east, west, or center. It pulsed, inspiring a dull pain, scratch that, he could feel a center, he just felt askew to it. Swallowing hard, he tried to feel for something, maybe he could find a wall, that would tell him direction, somewhat. From that he could deduce up and down or side from side. As he made contact with what he presumed was a level floor, it tilted fifty degrees, sending him to the floor, clipping his chin. He groaned, well at least his sense of pain was working, how great for him.

Yuri turned onto his back, holding his chin, what could he hear, if he couldn't see or really tell direction, in essence debilitating his sense of touch. He listened closely, concentrating so much he was sure he imagined the sounds he heard. He heard breathing and a heartbeat. He let out a breath, way to figure out what sounds _he_ was making! He tried to concentrate once more, until he realized that as he sighed, the breathing and heart-beat still resonated.

Swallowing hard, Yuri touched his chest, that same lub-dub he felt beneath his fingers that he had felt so many times before was alien to the thub-thub-thump he was hearing now. Now, as he listened harder, it seemed monstrous. The sound was crushing him, he almost wished he hadn't tried to hear it in the first place.

Beyond that was a dragging sound, the constant scraping one would suspect to hear from dragging a heavy rock down a paved street, a rock about the size of your head, Yuri imagined to himself as if clarifying. Wait, weren't those also the sounds soldiers made when sharpening their blades with a grinding stone? Yuri's eyebrows furrowed, why would they need to do that? Practice? It better not be for any acts of aggression!

There was a hitch in the sound, then a clack as if it made content again, Yuri felt weary of all this, he wanted to know what was happening! He moved his arms and legs up and down, in opposition to being a passive flower. If he couldn't tell up and down he'd just have to find it!

He was rewarded for his efforts by being dropped in an ungracious heap onto something soft, warm, and not like normal cushioning material at all. As his senses were slowly returning to him everything still seemed tinted black and red, enveloping him in a smoky mist. He knew this was nothing ordinary when he felt what must have been bony hands and teeth clench around his features. In some cases he felt pinched as something tried to hold down the fabrics of his outfit.

The smoke wrapped around and around, swirling about in such an unnatural way that Yuri found the air too heavy to readily breathe. Straining for his air, he forced his diminished eye-sight to take in his surroundings. He felt physically ill, he couldn't even begin to identify what he was seated in! If he had to try he'd say it was like a bean-bag chair made of internal organs, squishy intestines, and hundreds of 

probing hands, beaks, bony remnants of claws and mouths, the teeth prattling in some areas, as if trying to capture anything that came near enough.

The clacking sounds those teeth made, reminded him so much of Brazilian rain-sticks he played with in the sixth grade that he allowed himself to not become horribly unnerved by it, until he spotted one set of prattling teeth catch it's own bit of flesh, it was like a piranha! The flesh quickly being ripped into ribbons, Yuri's eyes widened.

He saw somewhat of a human-shaped shadow approach him, oddly the shadow had no body and stood erect as a three-dimensional object.

"Sousho…" His eyes narrowed, the shadow reached its hand to Yuri's face petting him, Yuri's chest tightened.

It smiled, no, it _leered_ at him a glowing red replaced all the distinguishable features of a normal mouth, opening slits where eyes would be held the same eerie incandescence. Yuri turned to see the hand, only for 'eyes' to start opening all around the hand as if wanting Yuri's undivided attention or maybe more accurately it wanted to keep watch over Yuri and see every little part of him.

He never felt so inadequate or naked, being looked at so intently. No! No, he couldn't think like that. People looked at him all the time, now. He's the maoh! Of course there were eyes on him, it was natural!

Sousho's smile didn't deteriorate as Yuri pushed himself to not be afraid. The hand pushed fingers in between Yuri's lips, forcing his mouth open, slipping in two long, frightfully solid structures. Yuri pulled back, only for the shadow to act more like a vapor, pouring itself into the opening, refusing to lose the contact.

Yuri hacked and coughed, Sousho going down the wrong pipe as it were…

His lungs burnt, his ears felt the blood rushing to his tips, he doubted his sanity when he _heard_ Sousho. That thing didn't speak, but it was clearly talking to him, in his head, interpreted just like a sound similar to when Murata had done when sharing maryoku, but this voice was different. It was a voice which was raspy and snide, the voice of someone with a demand.

"_You're going to open a portal to Shin Makoku._"

"Like hell I am!" Yuri hacked, managing to get out some of the vapors, "You're just an artifact of Sousho, I'm going to destroy you completely for what you've done!"

That appeared to be the wrong answer, he felt his chest tighten, apparently he hadn't gotten quite enough of the smoke from him.

It smiled, seeming not to mind dealing with a resistant maoh, after all, half the fun of a powerful person was to break him and bring him to his knees.

"_Not an option. You're going to open a portal, it may hurt when your soul is ripped from your body, please scream if that is the case._" Sousho reached its hand through Yuri's chest, the teen's lips parted to let out a gasp before his eyes fogged over.

"_Is it so bad to be locked away in this world? Here you can be happy all by your inadequate self. There's no Suzanna Julia that will over-shadow you._"

He forced his eyes to focus, managing to bring a sheen to the almost-flat obsidian gradient.

"_You can stay in here until you're ready to cooperate, or… would you prefer it if Julia is brought back instead?_" A red glowing smile surrounded him, apparently it found the sensitive-issue button.

Yuri went limp, the black vapor surrounded him in rings and lines that had it been grey would have been called a smoker's mist. His body lay limply on the pulsing organ-beanbag, bony projections kept him securely placed. Empty rib-cages folded over him to form armlets and anklets to shackle him to his seat.

Conrad held a sheathed sword, looking over the top of the jeep as Minami, Jose and Shori accompanied, Minami driving the standard with proficiency, enjoying each hard bump she hit by the looks of it.

Sour faces laced everyone else in the car, even Jose seemed upset that he was being dragged into this. He held his houseki fragments, flammable gas and lighter.

Narrowing her eyes, Minami smirked, "Almost there, hold on." As she made a sharp turn she slammed on the brakes, "What in the name of…?!"

Shori's eyes widened momentarily at the image before him, something had its hand in Yuri's chest! It looked as if it were fishing around, no less.

The two older-brothers of the group exited the jeep with skill, Conrad dismounting by jumping the door, Shori unbuckled and rolled from the other door just as smoothly, rushing toward the imprisoned figure.

"GYAH!" Yuri bit back his wincing yelp as Sousho fished deeper, eyebrows contorted in pain. He snapped his head left then right, thrashing in a slow motion as he tried to keep that hand from a particularly sore area. "I WON'T!"

Yuri's scream shocked the growing audience, unsure of the conversation occurring, though no one argued that it was taking place.

Sousho pulled its hand outward, the shadow's neck turning three hundred and fifty degrees, almost completing the circle to look at Shori, it brought a hand to Shori's face, the same set of countless red eyes taking in his appearance. The leering grin turned back around to focus on Yuri.

"_Don't need you._"

Shori, quick to assume that meant an attack set up a barricade just in time to guard the four new-comers.

"Release him at once!" Shori brought up his own powers, Sousho rotated its head around three times before stopping to spot Shori yet again, this time more quizzically.

"_Don't _need_ you_!" Sousho shot back a wave of tremendous psychic energy, forcing Minami and Jose to take two steps back.

Conrad fixed his blade, tempering himself as he continued to read the situation, that thing was still attaching itself to Yuri, to his Yuri.

Red eyes stopped during one rotation to land on Conrad, "_You though…_" Sousho brought its face over Yuri's producing a scream, back arching from his confined position it made Jose think of convicts sentenced to death via electric chair.

The teenaged form went limp, his hearing stopped, his breathing stopped, his irises fell to their corners closest to the earth, the only consistent motion came from twitching hands.

"_Who should be brought back?_" Sousho smiled, extracting a pure white, round sphere. Jose's eyes went wide. "_You don't have much time. The body won't be able to be brought back if you wait too long._"

It focused in, smiling cruelly, Shori rushed to Yuri's side as Sousho focused on Conrad. Conrad caught sight of the elder Shibuya as he approached Yuri unfettered.

"_All their memories are still inside. Make it open to Shin Makoku and it'll be put back._"

Conrad smiled softly as he looked on at the orb, he then glared at Sousho. "You can just discard it."

Shori's head whipped around to glare at Conrad. "What was that you son of a…"

Jose, upon Shori's side grabbed his arm silencing him. They returned their attentions to undoing the …intricate… bindings pinning Yuri to kami-knows-what that thing was. If Shori wasn't as terrified for his brother's well-being he'd have remarked on the smell.

Jose laid Yuri's body down flat before checking pulse and airways. He elbowed Shori, "You've done rescue-breathing before, right?"

Shori nodded once, in a sim.

"And what about healing maryoku?" He nodded once more. "Then try combining them. I'll watch your back." Jose drew out the flammable fluid and his trusty lighter.

Sousho turned its head ninety degrees so its face was horizontal to its shoulders as it stepped toward Conrad, investigating him. "_You're sincere?_" It smiled, laughing wickedly.

Conrad looked upward in an arrogant voice adding, "Who knows."

Sousho laughed, "_You're not afraid…_" Its face turned sour before glaring at him heatedly. "_You think this is a joke? …Hee hee hee…_"

Jose touched Shori's shoulder, "Whatever you do, keep with your brother. Don't worry, you can trust Conrad. He's the protector of Yuri's soul."

Shori's eyes narrowed, "How can you say that, you heard him! He doesn't care if Sousho destroys it!"

Jose winked, "Trust me, I know what he's doing and I trust him. It's what Yuri would want."

Shori's eyebrows flexed between boiling rage, confusion and acceptance. Making his first few attempts, Shori was growing angry and frustrated, the air wasn't going in! What could be getting in the way?!

Conrad closed his eyes as Sousho began to squeeze upon the white orb. He thought to himself, '_Julia_,' as Sousho shattered the orb into dust in its fist.

Shori pressed his lips over Yuri's as he blocked his nose, blowing in his air, causing his chest to finally rise.

Sousho looked disappointed, suddenly, Conrad merely smirked.

Continuing for another three breaths, Shori felt tears edging the corner of his eyes.

Sousho turned its head around, glaring angrily at the corpse.

"Without the maoh's holiest of souls, you're not getting to Shin Makoku. You don't have the power to do it anymore." Conrad said in a steadied voice.

Sousho's glowing eyes narrowed, drawing to it as much psychic energy as it could, it found that to be a shrinking increment. Minami smiled holding a rather empty-looking sack labeled kosher-salt.

Attempting to approach the Shibuya brothers, Jose sent out an array of fiery blasts, "Shori, get Yuri to the car and get out of here!" Conrad yelled, taking up arms.

Shori nodded once, right now all he had was trust in Conrad, because without that all he was holding was a life cut far too short in the carnation of his dead baby brother. "I swear I'm going to kill you…" He spat at Conrad, "If he dies I'll do it!"

Conrad looked at Shori over his shoulder, "By all means, please do." His eyes darkened as he turned his attentions back to Sousho.

Minami hopped into the jeep, loading into the driver's side. "Keep trying to resuscitate him, I'll drive."

She didn't have the heart to rip hope from him, but as a necromancer she knew, all too well. No soul, no bringing them back, even putting them on a respirator would hold them out for a few months of slow, physical deterioration and death. She closed her eyes asking just what Conrad had done.

After rounding out and passing the salt lines with some impressive swerving, she looked back at Shori, he held Yuri's face crushed to him, "Yuu-chan, don't you dare do this to your older brother!"

Minami slammed on the brakes putting the car in park. Reaching over, she touched his neck, finding what she needed immediately. "Idiot, what are you doing? Why did you stop breathing for him?"

Shori's eyes softened as he looked at her.

"His pulse is getting weak, get him on solid ground."

Shori nodded, he readjusted Yuri onto a patch of road shielded by the jeep.

"Listen to me, this is very important, You can't perform CPR or rescue-breathing in a jeep, it's too small for even his tiny frame, I'm going back to get help. Jose's another doctor, whatever you do, don't stop trying until you succeed. You're our Maoh, we Mazoku rely on you."

Adjusting his glasses, he didn't quite feel like letting an outsider like her see him cry for his brother.

He resumed his attempts as Minami abandoned them at the side of the road.

Upon her speeding off, Shori looked at Yuri once more, "You heard that, didn't you Yuu-chan? You have to be alright, people are depending on it." He resumed his acts of rescue-breathing, the thought striking him as he introspectively assessed what she said, _how could his heart still be beating after all this time_?

Closing his eyes, he leaned his lips over Yuri's mouth, angling back his neck.

Minami reappeared near the salt barricade, "Boys, playtime's over. Come to dinner." She reached over to the lever popping the trunk before producing a rather large, ominous looking casting circle and several large casting stones, high-grade houseki of course.

Jose smiled as he and Conrad fell back, toward the lines. Beginning her chant, Minami used what Jose recognized as Shintoist chants, he remembered the one from a boy's-love anime he watched because of a cute fox-girl-demon and morbid curiosity about binding spells and Mazoku. It did manage to make his face go numb, he found.

After she reached her ten-word power spell, she jabbed the houseki fragment into the line of salt which was a macroscopic version of what was on her tarp.

"Get in the car. Now." She jumped in as she dictated. The others followed, Jose looked at her expectantly. "He hasn't started breathing yet."

Conrad looked down, "He will."

"How can you say that so confidently? Sousho was holding his soul!"

Conrad smiled, before he turned to look at Jose who gave a poised smile in return.

"He's right, Shibuya-kun is just like the sun, I don't think a shadow could destroy him so easily, and that is only a fragment of a shadow."

"A fragment of Sousho; a fragment of fear," Conrad corrected.

"Well, if you're wrong I'll give Shori a shovel." She gave him a dirty look, "You took three years off of my life with stress, thanks to that. Kami-sama, I'd never be able to return to my friends if he really is dead."

Conrad's features darkened, "Don't even joke about such a thing." His voice was much more playful, confident.

Slowing the car, Minami came upon where she had left Shori and Yuri. "What… I left them right here!"

Shori glared at them upon their return, quickly approaching Conrad he turned and punched him, shocking Conrad. "Where's Yuri?!" Conrad said anger in his voice along with a sudden bout of heart-felt anxiety.

"You have no right to see him! Because of you… How could you just let that thing destroy his soul?!"

Conrad's eyes darkened, "That wasn't Yuri's soul. Yuri's soul isn't pure white, it has hints of yellow, just like the sun. Where is he?"

Shori looked at him, unnerved, that man didn't even flinch and Shori had hit him HARD.

Conrad's ear perked at a sound in the brush of coughing and dry-heaving. "Yuri!" Not one to believe in doors, he hopped the frame to rush over to the source.

Yuri spat, coughing as he tried to clear his throat. Dry heaving a few more times for good-measure he glared at Shori from the brush, "I knew you had a brother-complex but what the hell Shori?! Kissing me in my sleep? You're a shameless pervert! Deviant!"

Conrad covered his mouth to 'cough' into his fist before pulling Yuri into an embrace.

"Did he kidnap me when I was asleep or something? Where are we? What's so funny…?" Yuri gave Conrad a dirty look, unappreciative of how he found humor in the situation, or how he was so calm about Yuri being spirited away by his demonic letch-brother. "Wait… your face… you have a mark on it!"

"Ah, Shori punched me." He pointed to it as if it was a matter-the-fact statement.

Yuri's eyes went wide, "He _what_?!" Pulling himself into Conrad, "You were defending my honor after all!"

"…Honor?" Conrad's eyebrow rose.

"What's that mean? You don't think I have honor or virtue all of a sudden?" Yuri spat back.

"Of course you do, that wasn't what I meant. Yuri, he didn't do anything to you, he was performing…"

Shori glared, "I don't need you telling my kid-brother my affairs. Its got nothing to do with you, let's go back to the hotel already, Yuu-chan."

"…Don't come near me you letch!" Yuri said, putting Conrad between him.

"Ah, well you seem energetic now."

Shori muttered under his breath to Conrad, "Of course he does, I slipped enough of my maryoku for that. Don't you dare tell him he almost died, it would scare him."

"I know, I know."

"What are you two whispering about? Let's go back to the hotel… maybe grab something to eat, I had a really weird dream only to wake up with THAT…" Yuri glared at Shori once more, "Perverted Shori."

"Call me big-brother, Yuu-chan."

"Like I would after something like that!" Yuri fumed, Conrad merely smiled at him softly, giving Shori an appreciated look. He really was a good, albeit over-bearing, older brother.

To Be Continued.


	16. Part 16 False Resurrection

Shori slung his arm around Yuri protectively; the teen shrugged his shoulder to brush him off. He was getting annoyed at his clingy, perverted brother.

"Really, Shori, knock it off! Stop touching me!" To anyone with two children that have taken a long car-ride the sounds were familiar. Conrad merely glanced back at Shori before resuming a constant inspection of the horizon. "I swear, and what's with punching my fiancé? Huh?"

"I'm fine, Yuri." Conrad smiled as he continued to scan.

Sousho was still out there, after all. Sure, it thought Yuri was dead but that didn't mean it would stop thirsting for power. That meant the very place they were due back to would be the primary target of Sousho's attentions.

"Minami, are there any nice restaurants around here?" Conrad asked. Distance might be the better bet.

"I'm sure there are in such a tourist-oriented place." She shifted gears from second to third.

"Why don't you try to find one?" Conrad suggested rhetorically, "You can drop us off; we'll take in the atmosphere."

Minami nodded once well aware of Conrad's covert implications. Shori's eyes narrowed. "He's hardly dressed for that." Catching onto the hint he added, "So clothes shopping first."

"Why can't we just go back to the bath-house to eat?" Yuri whined, his hunger dictating where his attentions lay. He shoved his brother once more, "Shori! Get off of me!"

Shori pulled Yuri into a sleeper-hold hug, "How can I, I have such an adorable little brother."

"Geh! Deviant!" Yuri pulled himself out from under Shori's arms, mussing his hair irreparably. He smelt the air, "What smells so bad?" As he continued to sniff the air he found it impossible to locate.

Minami quickly suggested, "We drove through a marsh a little way back, don't you remember? It probably got stuck in the wheel-wells."

Apparently that was acceptable as Yuri went back to pushing Shori off of him. Why did he have to sit in the middle seat, anyway?

Conrad had justified because he was the smallest, but still! Jose was sitting in the back seat instead of Conrad and to Yuri that didn't have any logic to it at all. Minami, truly acting like Anissina when toiling in her lab, took a hard right catching a large pothole and jarring the entire car. He didn't know how far out in the boondocks they were, but it must be pretty far out there as it was taking so long for them to get back.

"You're all acting really strange, I want to know why."

Turning toward Yuri, Conrad gave him a disarming smile, eyes shut as he poured on the charm, "How do you mean, Yuri?"

His head turned slightly, losing himself at first to Conrad's charisma, he quickly shook his head and pointed; "Now I know you're hiding something! You called me Yuri, that was a perfect place for you to have called me 'heika' so you really are trying to…" Yuri's hand moved to his right brow. He elbowed Shori's arm. "I mean it stop touching me! I am sick of being touched so just stop it!" Yuri bowed closer to his knees everything was off, all of it. He was missing some piece and it was driving him mad.

Shori wasn't yelling at Conrad, Conrad wasn't taking Yuri's side while Shori half-molested him, Jose kept looking out at the horizon, as was Conrad even as he tried to look like he wasn't -- for the record, and Minami was driving erratically, taking more turns than necessary to get to some unknown point very different from the hotel.

He sat up, back straight, "…That all really happened?!" His mouth dropped open slightly. How could that really have gone on though? He began raising his shirt to look at his chest, he remembered in his dream a hand went into his chest, a face came so close to his that it actually started to go into his and yet he couldn't tell what the face looked like… but how could a face literally go into his? He didn't mean like press against, he meant faze into, like where the nose would be touching brain sort of into.

Finding his necklace, he touched the blue stone swiping off some ash as he did. Pulling it to the side he noticed a smear of char where he had remembered the hand entered through, just over his sternum, his heart. His fingers slid down it smearing the ash and providing a clear view of his fair, unmarred skin.

Yuri looked at the charm wondering how it managed to go right over that spot so perfectly.

"…That was Sousho then… It was trying to take my soul…?" He began to look around, Shori suddenly found the view outside fascinating, Conrad looked at him with some sense of remorse, the others going about their business driving erratically and taking point-guard.

Focused black eyes bore into Conrad's brown, "So explain to me, how _did_ you defeat Sousho?"

"By taking you from it before it got what it wanted." Conrad said flatly.

"Why isn't it chasing after us then?"

Minami chimed, "Probably because it thinks you're dead."

Yuri's eyes shrank back; Conrad gave her a heated glare before locking eyes with Yuri again.

The teen turned to face Shori expectantly, "And how did it have that misunderstanding?"

"Well, it was partially correct." Minami started, "You did stop breathing after all."

"Enough!" Conrad hissed out at her, Shori touched Yuri's face measuring him.

His lip quivered as the realization was dawning on him, "You mean… I really did almost die?" Doe-eyed, he spotted Shori, "So all of this… why didn't you say something! Huh!"

Yuri looked back down at his lap, his head was swimming.

"And say what, Yuu-chan? Tell you that you weren't breathing for more than ten minutes? How would that help?"

Yuri blushed indignantly, "You were doing THAT to me for ten minutes?!" He blanched. "I need to gargle something."

Letting the air stay empty, the others gave Yuri a chance to digest what he heard until finally, the teenager pierced the veil of silence, "But, if Sousho almost killed me, why am I not hurt anywhere?"

Shori stiffened at that, he glared at Conrad in a way hard to read, "Because I healed you."

"That only works so well, it makes the wound close, it doesn't make it vanish." Yuri reflected all too knowingly. "So what did it do to 'kill' me? What, is it so weird to ask?" He looked at their baffled faces, even Conrad remained mute.

"Sousho removed your soul, that's when your big-brother rescued you and the others distracted it."

"…Then how did I get my soul back if you didn't defeat Sousho?" He looked to Conrad, sure getting him back beat Sousho, but it didn't seal or destroy it, it was still on the loose, so how could they really say it was defeated!

"Sousho destroyed what he thought was your soul." Conrad mentioned soberly, correcting Minami's assertion.

"With _his_ permission," Shori complained, "That's why I decked him."

Conrad smiled, "Of course I knew it wasn't you, heika."

"WELL YOU COULD'VE TOLD _THE REST_ OF US!" Shori screamed indignantly. Yuri blocked his ear from that sonic boom.

"Oh, what, you couldn't tell?" Conrad smirked knowing yet another aspect that Shori would never, let alone understand.

"Wait, then what was it?" Yuri asked utterly confused as his hand returned to his lap, squeezed between Shori and Jose. Was that why the two were tensely getting along? Well, he supposed he was a fool if he had thought it was for _his_ sake.

"Yeah, what was it then?"

Conrad smiled back at Yuri, "It isn't important what it was so much as that it worked. It was Julia protecting you, though how she did it I'm not sure."

"How do you know Julia was protecting me again?" Yuri blushed; he really didn't mean to say _again_. He never liked talking about how he escaped Sousho, it made him feel more inadequate and yet it also taught him to be proud of himself.

"She has the tendency to show up and gloat a bit, I'd say." He put his hand on Yuri's hair, "Anyone Julia deemed meddle-worthy she would appear before, has it not happened with you, too?"

Yuri blushed, "I… see." He smiled warmly, she was kind wasn't she? But simultaneously, really what was with Mazoku and not letting go after death? They had a nasty habit of coming back to interject the living.

Jose glanced at Minami, "I think we may be in the clear, wow I'm sort of let-down that it didn't realize you're alive. In anime the villains always seemed to know the state of the protagonist."

"…Jose, this isn't anime." Yuri whined after leaning back into his seat. His stomach gurgled. "I'm so hungry, I could cry."

"We'll be in a city within a few minutes, heika." Minami said, smirking as she pushed the jeep into a higher gear.

The sudden shift and acceleration winded Yuri as he complained, "Now don't you start calling me tha--t!"

He flinched an eye shut as he took in a breath.

Clearing a sharp left the city-limits came to sight, finally.

Yuri's face soured, "Why aren't we going back to the inn?" His face was brooding. He thought the round of honesty and revelation would mean they'd try to fix things and make them right, not continue to avoid the issue!

"…" The others in the car found their views out of respective windows enticing yet again.

"Obviously because you're in no shape, and with Sousho sure to show up there… right now we have the opportunity for you to heal while it thinks you're dead. If you show up too soon we won't get that chance again."

"And what exactly is it planning to do there?" Yuri said in as tempered and patient of a voice he could, given his rising temper and plummeting sense of toleration. He really was growing impatient about all of this dancing around him.

"Right now, attempting to break the barriers of purified lands," Minami began, "the others know to stay there otherwise they'll most likely be killed horribly."

Was this woman just born blunt or did she work on it? Conrad smacked his forehead; she really did want to make him work for his paycheck in protecting Yuri, not as if he'd need to get paid for it.

"What?!"

"They are as safe as they can be, for now Yuri. Once you've regained your strength you will be able to help them, until such a time we need to use this to our advantage and regroup." Conrad mediated.

Yuri swallowed as he looked at Conrad, "You know I'm really not happy about this. Shori you should be even more pissed! These are still your future subjects! How can you be so calm with that many people in danger?"

"Because you're not there." Shori answered in all honesty, "And he's …right… don't you ever repeat that, any of you! I'll call it slander. They are the safest they can be; our arriving would only make it worse and make Sousho more desperate to attack. So far it doesn't have any real reason to be gung-ho, if you show up though… it's important for you to keep away."

Yuri bowed his head, "How does going shopping and eating at high-quality restaurants while our people huddle in fear make things better at all?" He let out a low breath.

"Not to be rude, but that smell has nothing to do with a marsh. You wreak, you need clothes. We'll need provisions and it's going to take some time to book a hotel for us to stay at while we wait." Jose started in.

"There's that, and you're hungry." Conrad concluded.

"Now, did you have any other stupid questions? Really we should get them out before I park." Minami mentioned. She was having fun with them; she could understand just how warm Shibuya Yuri was and how he was a maoh like no other, not as if she had doubted it before.

"Quiet in the peanut-gallery." Shori remarked, "Right now we're working out of necessity, a nice, upscale place will allow for our extravagant appearance. Think of it, we have two foreigners, one with a sword, a doctor with the same airs, and two Japanese youths one of which looks like he's cutting classes. If we dress you in a suit it will look like you're doing something else, like you're a diplomat's kid or something. Otherwise it'll draw even more attention and we want to be under the radar, as much as we can be at least."

Yuri lowered his head, nodding once. "Okay… I understand."

"Good." Shori smiled, now with everything thoroughly explained.

As they piled out of the car, Yuri tanked, Conrad caught him before he could hit the pavement. Seating Yuri back in the car, Conrad mentioned to the others, "He'll be fine. He just needs a minute."

Taking it as what it was, Jose and Minami knew that was their cue to start looking for arrangements. Though Yuri didn't know, Minami had driven them to the next major city, that to a good two hours by driving (if someone drove like a normal, sane person who valued his life and took a direct road) to reach.

Shori decided to step back, "I'll get an outfit for him, that shouldn't take me too long, we'll finish picking up more clothes when he has a little more strength."

Conrad nodded as he looked over Yuri, though the teenager hardly seemed impressed by the camaraderie.

Rubbing at his eyes Yuri dipped his head into Conrad's shoulder before closing them. "I just need to rest a bit more." He slid back into the now empty bench-seat, pulling up his knees, feet resting on it, instead of curling to let them dangle off.

"Of course, Yuri." Conrad unbuttoned his top-shirt, the thin shirt nothing in comparison to his normal uniform over-coat. Regardless of that fact, he draped it over Yuri's chest letting the teen treat it like a blanket even though it had the consistency of a sheet.

Turning his face toward the back of the seat, he snuggled toward his fist, he let out a low, "Conrad…?"

"Yes Yuri?"

"…In my dream… well, I guess it wasn't a dream… but Sousho told you to choose, that you could have _her_ back…"

"That is correct, Sousho said that." Conrad watched his words carefully; this was a mine-field.

"…You didn't even hesitate to choose me… did you?" Conrad could see the curl in Yuri's lips, "That made me really happy… to know that you felt that way. I'm sorry you had to say it, but, thank you."

They straightened then turned to a frown, "I know you had your reasons, I mean… it was to force open a portal to destroy Shin Makoku, it was probably lying about it anyways and would use it against me… I keep thinking all of it, but you said it was what I'd want… when you made your decision… you know you were right, I don't even have to say I would choose to sacrifice myself versus that amount of misery…" Yuri curled in closer, still not facing Conrad as he poured out his words, "I'm babbling… you can stop me if you want to."

"You have something you want to say, what's to stop?" Conrad said as he reached over to Yuri's hair, brushing it back. He returned from outstretched to kneel near the door, sword ever-ready.

"I really am your most precious person… that's not really a thing for someone else to say, but I can't help but think when you said that, that I really am… ne, Conrad am I? Am I really or am I making an idiot out of myself?"

"You are; you truly are my most precious, important person. No one can take that from you, Yuri."

Smiling again, Yuri turned to see Conrad's face, tears glistened the corners of his eyes. "Really? That really makes me happy Conrad, so very, very happy Conr… Conrar…t."

Conrad smiled before snagging Yuri's hand to kiss it. "I love you, Yuri."

Yuri blushed before letting his heavy eyes rest shut for a few more moments, he let out a wispy, "I love you Conrad," as he slept for the next ten minutes, Conrad torn between watching over and just watching Yuri as he slept.

By the end of ten minutes, he tapped Yuri's knee inspiring him to wake. "Yuri, Shori's coming back with a change of clothes. We'll be able to grab something to eat shortly after you change."

Yuri rubbed his eyes, "Mm, okay… Good morning."

"Good morning, Yuri." The black-haired teen smiled back, taking an offered hand by Conrad to sit up before handing Conrad back his slightly wrinkled shirt.

To Be Continued.


	17. Part 17 False Security?

Shori's eye twitched as he approached the jeep, Yuri with that halo-effect of someone who just experienced ecstasy, Conrad with a wrinkled top-shirt hanging over his baby brother… The bag of clothes dropped as Shori grabbed Conrad and shook him.

"Have you no sense of decency?! In Japan! In public! In broad day-light! And when he's so weak and ill you pounce on him?!"

Conrad merely gave Shori a tempered look of someone who really didn't care to know what he was going on about, Yuri sat up, rubbing at his tired right eye to get out the remnants of sleep. "Huh? Shori, keep it down, you're drawing attention to yourself."

He spotted the bag at Conrad's feet, Conrad handed it to Yuri instinctively, preventing the teen from having to make excess motion. He pulled out the first of the several pieces of clothing within the bag.

True to Shori's word, he had gotten Yuri a formal outfit to wear and it was sized to fit Yuri perfectly. It didn't surprise Conrad that much, that Shori would know his size; the doting big-brother probably enjoyed choosing what to dress 'his' Yuri in. Yuri looked at the selection, surprised that it was relatively normal.

After all, he was used to a sense of dread coming from opening shopping bags filled with clothing from the Shibuya household with 'his' name all over it. No, Shori had actually gotten him a rather nice looking outfit, proving the older Shibuya had a sense of fashion when it came to suits, go figure.

Yuri began to put on the satin charcoal grey button-down long sleeved shirt as Conrad took tags off of the pants and top-coat. Shori's eye twitched again as Conrad didn't find it decent to turn around for Yuri to change with some semblance of privacy.

Conrad handed Yuri his pants as the teen proceeded to drop his drawers, Shori's eyes went wide before pulling Conrad away.

"Eh?" Yuri's voice hung in the air as the door was suddenly void of Conrad and presented with a view of the street, he quickly blushed, pulling the door shut with a slam. His cheeks went red, he could have sworn a little old lady had spotted him in those few instances. After the next few minutes of sheer blushing as his hands fumbled with the pants' looping mechanisms, he finally approved the opening of the door.

Grumbling as he looked at Shori, he let out a taxed, "Thanks for getting the clothes… they're… nice." Just saying that assured he'd have five suits piled up for his birthday if not for X-Mas.

His stomach let out an audible gurgle reminding everyone just how hungry a growing teenaged boy's body could be. Shori gave him a sympathetic look before he extended his hand to Yuri to help him from the car. Yuri pushed off the frame of the door, trying on his own before wobbling a little more than he'd have liked, relented and grabbed his brother's hand for him to pull him the rest of the way up.

Conrad's hand found the small of Yuri's back instinctually to keep him in a guided motion and add support in case the need arose. Against Shori's personal taste, he put an extra foot distance between himself and Yuri. After all, Yuri was right, they really didn't want to cause any more attention then necessary.

Speaking to Conrad softly, Yuri asked, "Where are the others?"

Shori jumped in to answer, "Jose found a suitable hotel, Minami made reservations for a five-star restaurant, so we should have a private sitting area."

Yuri nodded, truthfully happy for that. The bags under his eyes indicated why, especially with the looming dilemma of hand-eye coordination with chopsticks. "Oh… that's right, Conrad, _do_ you know how to use chopsticks?"

It wasn't unreasonable to expect him not to, after all, very few foreigners knew how to use them properly, and luckily, Conrad's brown hair would instantly grant him 'fork' privileges, well at least in normal restaurants Yuri was used to going to.

"Yes, I have used them before. Though, Jose may have been making fun of me." He contemplated, recalling just how long of a tangent Jose had gone into about the positions of the chopsticks on the table and what was polite, what was considered 'finished' and what was considered taboo. Apparently sticking chopsticks upright in the food signaled an offering of said food to ancestral spirits, because it looked like incense or something or another.

"…Well, they probably will have lacquered ones with rounded tips, it may be a little harder for you." Yuri mentioned, thinking to himself when he made the change-over when he was much younger, "If it gets too annoying I'm sure they'll have forks."

Yuri let out a lengthy yawn before teetering in his step. Conrad bawled the fabric in the back panel of Yuri's jacket to keep him upright. Shori's brow twitching at the potential wrinkle in Yuri's pristine outfit.

"You, why is your shirt wrinkled? What wicked things were you doing to my adorable little brother?" Shori asked, pointing at Conrad heatedly.

"He let me use his shirt as a blanket, Shori. Ah, I'm sorry it got so wrinkled Conrad… maybe we should get you a change in clothes too, before we go in." Shori's eyes narrowed. In truth, he had already thought of that. He fished into the bag and pulled out a light-weight cotton-blend blazer. It was a bland, earthy brown, but markedly a Conrad sort of jacket. Conrad wasn't one to stand out with his wardrobe, and he and Shori were about the same size.

Shori pulled out a black blazer jacket of a different cut but same fabric to don himself, and with that, the three half-mazoku walked into the restaurant.

Minami smiled as she spotted the three. "Well, the guests of honor are here. Jose will be here in another ten minutes. I've instructed the wait-staff to escort him back when he arrives. Yuri-heika, why 

don't we take our seats, I'll check you over just to be sure you're alright." She mentioned in a more dictatorial way then any genuine request.

Swallowing, Shibuya Yuri laughed, "Aha ha hah… um, do I have to?" He let out a defeated sigh, answering internally a nagging '_of course I have to…_'

Shori and Conrad seemed to be waiting for Yuri to take his seat, it reminded him of a vulture waiting for the kill to actually die before swooping in, well at least Shori. He realized Conrad was waiting to sit until Yuri's own needs had been met. His eyes were drooping, he felt exhausted.

"…" Yuri was about to open his mouth when Conrad whispered discreetly.

"Yuri-heika, you have to regain your strength, don't even think about it."

Yuri blushed, embarrassed to being just so transparent, Conrad cutting off a string of requests to reconsider going back to the inn, he really did have work to do, even if he was tired… so very tired.

Shori pointed in frustration, "What perverted things are you whispering to my sweet, innocent, naïve Yuu-chan, huh you letch?"

Yuri gave Shori a dirty look. "Letch? Isn't that a person who gropes up unconscious people and kisses them in their sleep… especially when those unconscious people are their sweet, innocent, naïve little brothers? Huh? Shori, you perverted deviant…"

Minami laughed into her knuckle. "Well, you seem feisty. Now lean your head back." She grabbed a handful of bangs as she tugged Yuri's head backward making him swoon. She glanced into his dilated pupils. She pulled out a mag-lite flashlight from seemingly nowhere, up her sleeve maybe? Turning on the bright beam and aiming into his eyes, Yuri's eyebrows furrowed.

Her lips twitched to a corner, puckered with a contemplative look. Her eyebrows made an equally quizzical look as she pondered. Turning off the light she released his hair letting him slump back to his normal axis of gravity. He sat down, almost disgruntled.

Shori pounced at the chance to sit next to Yuri causing the younger Shibuya to groan. "…Shori, ugh, what are you doing?"

"…Sitting down, obviously," Shori explained.

Conrad, in a much smoother motion sat to Yuri's other side, the teenager let out a heavy sigh. With Conrad to his right, he felt a pang of self-consciousness about his 'lovely' haircut.

Turning to face Conrad, Yuri gave him a metered look. Conrad touched his fingertips to Yuri's cheek, clasping at the tips to the longer bangs in his face. Leaning in, he smelt and kissed those delicate strands before whispering, "I love you Yuri, you're beautiful."

The blush reached Yuri's ears turning them bright red as well as his cheeks and bridge of his nose in between. He couldn't help but smile lightly at that.

His heavy eyes reminded him, fiercely, of his other bodily demands for what to do after eating.

It was evident to those around the serving table as Yuri continued to slump closer and closer to the table in centimeters; about 4 degrees bend more for each passing ten minute increment.

After placing the initial order, the waiter left to retrieve drinks. During the interval, Yuri's eyes grew cloudy and moist.

Shori's hand to Yuri's back shot him arching up, eyes wide as if he had just been shocked. They darted left then right, upon spotting Conrad, he let out a gasp of air he hadn't realized he had been holding in.

Yuri changed position of his legs from the tatami mats, instead of sitting with his legs under him, he pulled his knees to his chest, arms wrapping around them momentarily as glossy saline orbs gathered at the corners.

"It's so sad." He said to no one.

"Yuu-chan?"

Yuri shook his head as if indicating he didn't want to hear any questions. "…That's why they're dying. It's building their fear and feeding off of it." Yuri turned to face Minami, "You already knew, didn't you?"

She diverted her own gaze, in a moment of surprising shyness for the topic.

"…Yuri, what do you mean?"

"Sousho. They aren't dying because of maryoku… well, they are but they aren't. They're dying because Sousho is making them use it out of fear, using that to strengthen itself. They're dying so it can build up strength and they don't even realize they're being used. I know they can't completely control their powers, but that's not what's causing all this. It's because Sousho is somehow signaling them to make them feel panicked, to make them think they'll die and it's triggering a terminal, bitter cycle."

He looked back at Minami, "That's why you were fine with staying behind, isn't it?"

"I'm not afraid to die, if that's what you mean."

Shori looked at her strangely, "…You mean you don't think you can die?"

"…I mean that even if I do, I won't be afraid of it." She corrected, "I noticed it too, the people who grew more worried and agitated… they're the ones who dropped faster, well proportionate to their powers." She fingered her tied-back black hair. "I work around it all the time, death, I'm weird but I'm not afraid of it. I guess that makes me immune to its effects. Well, not like that matters either way to me."

"Not like it matters? You realize that's the difference between living and dying, that matter." Shori hissed, Yuri seeming relatively serine within his epiphany.

"I told you, I'm not afraid of dying. It's not like I want to die, but if I do, I do so what can I really say to change the fact? So, I accepted it a long time ago that one day I'll die. What's so garish about that?"

"Everything about you seems to be garish." Shori grumbled before turning from the conversation.

Yuri looked back at Minami, "I think I understand, but all the same people would be sad if you died."

She looked at her nails, dismissively, not really thinking the flavor of the conversation went with lunch.

"That is inconsequential to how I feel. But on the subject of grave-concerns and fears of mortality, a great deal of people would mourn your passing, so please keep that in mind. You need to rest, as it is you look as if you'll collapse within the hour of complete exhaustion."

"Aha ha, yeah, I probably will." He smiled at Conrad, "But I have someone here who insists on catching me." His kind smile expressing his love reached his black orbs even as they began to fade with tiredness again.

"So, what brought along the realization?" Minami asked.

Yuri hung his head low, "…I don't think I really want to speak on that matter just yet." He looked back up at the others, "So let's eat and then go to the hotel."

"That would be a good idea." Conrad concurred, though he consciously measured Yuri with his eyes as he spoke. It was foolish to say he thought something was wrong, after all, understatements were wastes of words. No, the question he had posed to himself happened to ask what something was, more than what had already transpired.

The waiter entered carrying a large tray of glasses, tea for each patron and then their distinct drink of preference. He recalled how just about everyone threw in to order his drink, as he spotted a mandarin orange juice, courtesy of Minami, chocolate milk, courtesy of an annoying older brother encouraging Yuri to have a growth spurt, grape juice for some vitamin or another, and a water, which he had chose for himself, because Conrad at least understood how much Yuri hated people 'taking care of' him. It made things too much of a production.

Conrad sat his tea down after taking a drink. The orders went around, and yet again Yuri seemed to have grabbed the largest portion. It made him feel awkward, as if the waiter would think he was a cow or something with the way he was gorging.

Catching that awkward blush from Yuri, Conrad mentioned, "Actually, please change my order to that as well." The blush brightened in Yuri's cheeks, but not out of embarrassment so much as out of pure admiration and love for that man. He knew just how to move and act to make Yuri as comfortable as possible and did so without fail just because he seemed to like to. Yuri hardly understood why someone would go through that much trouble for him, no scratch that, he didn't understand why at all, he just knew he loved Conrad and all that was him.

After bowing on his exit, the waiter left with the order in mind.

Yuri touched his head, leaning forward. His mind locked on the subject at hand, Sousho, he could feel that cackling brim his sanity and slowly start invading his thoughts more consciously. Somehow he truly doubted that Sousho really believed he was dead but the only reasoning he could come up with for Sousho not immediately attacking made him feel ill.

Why not attack Yuri at this weakened state? Because it was going to regroup, itself. And how does Sousho get to regroup? By devouring anything with a sense of fear. Who has fear in a readily available area? The very people he was here to save. In short, Sousho was currently hunting a weaker prey to assure victory when it returned.

Yuri rubbed at his eyes; that was the only thing he could think of, really… how could Sousho really not think Yuri was alive? Even if the others were convinced, such a thing made no sense to him. Not like Sousho really thinking he was dead did him any favors, it would still go after the others… he needed to recover. He needed to do it and quickly.

"…If we went to Shin Makoku, wouldn't I be able to return sooner?"

"It isn't happening, Yuu-chan. You can't open a portal and _I'm_ not about to signal Sousho let alone send you into that mess." Shori bit his lip, damn he really didn't want to start that conversation!

"What do you mean _mess_?!" Yuri started, heatedly. "When did he go there?"

Shori fixed his glasses, "I went there to formulate a plan while you were entertaining that monster."

"How is it a mess? What was happening in there? There isn't a war is there? Gwendel said that he wouldn't let it progress to that! Murata- did you talk to Murata? Aren't the peace-talks going more smoothly…!?"

"Yuri, calm down." Conrad put a hand on Yuri's shoulder. "It would be unwise for you to go to Shin Makoku now, and I'm sure he's merely exaggerating things."

"…Hardly, there were troops all over the place." Shori said in annoyance, Conrad's steady glare between looking at Yuri's unnerved state even managed to faze Shori's resolve. "That Gwendel guy was pacing back and forth with his eyebrows knotted and Gunter was pulling petals off flowers talking about how it would turn out, even that obnoxious blond seemed worried while I was there."

"…Was this before or after you mentioned Sousho?" Conrad asked in a straight-forward, thoughtful tone.

"After, of course. Why would I waste my time else wise?"

Yuri let out a sigh, "So it didn't have anything to do with Belal… thank goodness." His head picked up, "Wait, so now they're freaking out that I'm in Sousho's clutches! I have to send word to them…" Yuri stood up quickly, too quickly in fact, as he collapsed in a heap back to his knees. He felt light headed.

"Yuri!" Conrad looked over him as he waited for Yuri to collect his bearings. He handed Yuri one of his assorted drinks, his hand happening upon the orange juice as he 'fed' it to him.

Yuri sipped the fluid slowly, still getting the fuzziness out of the edges of his mind. He glowered, "Right… right now I can't even move freely let alone between worlds." He sighed.

Conrad leaned over, towering most of Yuri's features as he continued to watch him.

Minami tapped her watch, "Oh, not even ten minutes. Huh, well you did come right back around, so you probably have another good one in you."

Shori looked at her strangely until recalling her earlier comment. That doctor was annoyingly crass.

"Yuu-chan, you wouldn't make it through the transportation without blacking out, and what would happen if you did? You might drown or get left behind somewhere weird and that would be far worse than anything else. I can't bring you there. Even just one of us going might signal Sousho anyways, so you see I really can't help you with that."

Yuri shook his head, "No… I guess not. I really hate this all though. I want to save them and as it is I'm more of a liability and putting them in even more danger just by being here." His head lowered before he kicked the ground in frustration. "I _hate_ this!"

Conrad put a supportive hand on Yuri's shoulder. He knew what Yuri meant, Yuri's philosophy in life was to protect everyone, save everything, so when he was left unable to do something it truly did frustrate him, but the fact that it was in order to spare him must have made everything else add to the guilt that was weighing at his shoulders.

Pulling him to his chest, Conrad hugged Yuri allowing the ebony-haired teen to let out the few tears he wanted to hide yet shed at the same time.

It took Yuri under a minute to regain his composure, which timed well, as within the minute thereafter, the food was brought out.

Even moping, the teen's appetite was voracious as he swallowed down the meal with much less chewing than he normally would before an audience. That was one thing annoying about Shin Makoku dinners, he felt so self-conscious in front of everyone at those formal dinners that he would chew twenty some-odd times before swallowing. By time he finished eating he'd be starving! As it were, those inhibitions were a bit limited, well, not completely. He didn't want Shori to nag or Conrad to think he was a pig, so he cut it down to roughly half the number of chews. If anything it reminded the others of him after a rigorous ball-game.

Conrad was eating casually, keeping somewhat in pace with Yuri, each time Yuri changed dish so did he, though he finished eating when Yuri finished eating it was due to food remaining on the plate.

To Yuri's surprise, everyone finished eating around the same time he did, none wasting time for conversation or openly discussing the looming topic. What was there left to say? He had to rest and he had to recuperate. Nothing anyone said would change that fact.

The waiter came in to find everyone finished within twenty minutes, it did amaze him, usually that sort of meal was a meeting and thus took an hour at least.

The question of dessert loomed. Minami started, "Why don't you bring us an a la carte display to go. About two of each and two pieces for each person, oh and the selection is your choice, you'd know the house's best I presume."

The waiter nodded, Shori handed him the credit card. "Bring that back with the receipt."

Nodding once more, the waiter left.

"It solves any questions doing it that way, plus now we'll have something sweet to snack on a little later." Minami resolved as if to prevent Yuri from asking what that was about, not as if he had planned to.

Yuri bowed his head before taking Conrad's hand to squeeze it in his smaller one.

"Did you require something else, Yuri?"

Yuri shook his head.

"We should get you a set of clothes then head to the hotel." Conrad mentioned, Yuri nodded once in approval.

The waiter soon returned, holding the paper receipt, extending it to the eldest Shibuya brother before he took the piece of plastic and it, returning both to his wallet.

Yuri leaned into Conrad's side to whisper, "…Do you really think Sousho doesn't know I'm alive?"

Conrad turned his head to look at Yuri, so that was what this was about.

"…Because I think it does, and that's why it wants to gain as much strength as it can, the only way it can, through taking lives."

"Regardless of whether it does or does not know of your condition, it regrettably will not change the outcome. I'm not going to let it harm you."

"I'm not afraid of it."

"I know, and that partially belies the problem. In your state you wouldn't be able to defeat it even if you did decide to rush ahead to face it."

Yuri hung his head, "It's not like that! I… I understand." He sighed, "I just don't know how to resolve this without any unnecessary casualties… well, any more unneeded deaths. There's been too many as it is."

"And it is a very heavy burden, they weight that falls upon a ruler's shoulders. Sometimes the decisions that have to be made don't have an easy answer, or even an answer you want." Conrad watched the reactions play across Yuri's face as he thought about it.

"I don't really find that acceptable." He let out another sigh. "Maybe if I rest I'll come up with a better solution…"

"There is that possibility, yes." Conrad smiled at Yuri in a reassuring manner, "So let's go, once we get resituated we might be able to think of something more practical."

"Alright. Yeah, I keep going back and forth, I'm sorry I'm such a fickle fiancé." Yuri smiled, lightly.

Conrad kissed his brow, "There's no need to be, after all, it's a part of your charm, that undying urge to help everyone."

Yuri blushed.

"Quit flirting in public you deviant." Shori said, whilst holding the selected deserts.

Yuri narrowed his eyes and grumbled, "Says the brother-complex goth-loli fan-boy! You're the definition of a hentai, older brother!"

Shori blushed at Yuri's words, no, not the hentai or brother-complex or even goth-loli… well, okay that did him in a little, he was so cute saying 'loli', but the cutest aspect was when he called him big-brother. So cute!

Yuri flinched, he forgot and let it slip. Sliding behind Conrad he mentioned, "I know I never really appreciated Wolfram's efforts to 'defend my virtue' and thus his engagement… but you don't think you could… ah… _do_ something about _that_ do you?" He pointed to his gawking brother who he could practically see the flowery screen-tone and water-color still shots exploding from behind him.

Conrad chuckled, "I can see what I can do."

To Be Continued.

A/N: Hi all! I know this… keeps going and going… lol, it won't end I tell you! The beast… no, I'm kidding I know what I'm doing… haha..ha… okay, so that lie sounds a bit short, j/k. I want to rally you all to review though! XD I have stories for ConYuu that have still only gotten 2 reviews here and there, and that makes me a bit sad. TTTT See, I'm crying. Crying Vanessas are unable to write fanfiction due to the lack of the ability to see the screen, so please R & R, especially saying this is becoming a series, I want the companion pieces to get some love, too. So, again… please R & R! Feedback is really appreciated, it keeps me motivated and writing… and not studying half as much as I should for finals. -Groans-

Well! Thanks for reading, catch the next installment soon!


	18. Part 18 Deathly Serious

"Uh, maybe this was a bad idea…" Yuri said, looking around from inside the store, where countless sets of female and male attendants were gawking. Yes, even the men were gawking at him at this point!

One of the female attendants approached with two pairs of pajamas draped over her arms as she showed them to Yuri, "This should be your size, sir, the blue pair is 100 silk, while the black pair is satin, shall I take you to the fitting room?"

Yuri swallowed hard, her hand landed on his wrist, "It's just this way," she pointed.

Conrad merely smiled at Yuri as if asking him to grin and bear it, as he currently was doing. A few of those fawning eyes that were making Yuri so uncomfortable were definitely raking over Conrad's foreign looks, but he wasn't as naïve as Yuri to actually think they were solely for him. No, there were three female attendants who saw the still well below legal limits teenager in such a handsome suit thinking to themselves some rather adult things.

Yuri took hold of Conrad's wrist as he in turn was being pulled to the fitting area. "Ah… Conrad!" Yuri tugged to assure the brunette realized he was following him into the area.

Why did Shori have to take him to such an upscale department store?! Yuri cursed under his breath, how was this at all under the radar? One of the tailoring hands grabbed a bit more 'fabric' than necessary at the seat of his pants making him yelp uncomfortably, "I don't need it to be fitted!" Yuri pulled himself back from the clutches, did he just imagine it or did that guy just give him the 'Gunter treatment' with his eyes pressed closed in ecstasy, the eerie smile of euphoria and the faintest trace of both a pink blush and the tell-tale trickle of a bloody nose about to burst? He swallowed hard.

The man bowed then took two steps back, "But of course, sir."

…He wasn't _going_ to leave, was he? Yuri twitched before letting out a sigh. "…Shori…" He muttered angrily under his breath before rubbing his eyes.

Conrad took up the place of the tailor in helping Yuri remove his suit jacket, shirt and pants, exchanging it for the pajamas.

This was so pointless, they were just going to buy them both anyway, why did he have to endure these ogling eyes and unnecessary attention? "…I'm picking the next store." Yuri moaned to Conrad in annoyance, Conrad smiled in accord.

"Hai, hai." He already knew this was nothing like Yuri's taste, he debated if this was Shori's brotherly love or 'training' his brother to be more kingly, or just his own hissy fit. It really had the potential to be a combination of all of it.

Yuri sat down once fully dressed in the blue pajamas. "Haa. I'm so tired." His head stooped forward as he half-fell asleep, his eyes fogging over slightly.

"Yuri, you should change back, the sooner we get you some 'street clothes' the sooner we can return to the hotel."

The black-haired and eyed teen let out a mushroom sigh before standing back up to unbutton his shirt, though he really did feel ready to collapse, something was nagging him, telling him postponing wasn't such a horrible idea either.

Conrad put a firm hand on Yuri's shoulder, "Yuri…?"

Yuri smiled at Conrad, not wanting to alarm his fiancé, "Ah, nothing. It's nothing I'm fine."

Brown eyes focused more keenly, after all, nothing screams something's wrong more than someone saying there isn't, especially when not asked directly.

"Do you need to rest? I could get your clothes if you wish to just head to the hotel now…"

"No, no that won't be necessary, I'd rather be with you anyways." Yuri let out a sigh, that was really true, very-_very_ true.

Conrad looked up and down Yuri several times before accepting the answer, "Alright, then shall we check out?"

Yuri nodded, slipping on his suit pants.

As the two exited the store, with a sea of hand waving from the swooning employees, Conrad held Yuri's bags, approaching the next store on the list.

"Do you think he's a prince visiting Japan?"

"He seemed so regal, he has to be aristocratic, maybe he's related to the prime minister? That foreigner definitely looked like a body guard."

Yuri felt a cold sweat as the eyes were still landing on him, even from down the block. "So what's left for us to get, Conrad?"

Conrad smiled back at Yuri, "Your brother is getting all the toiletries necessary, so all we have left would be the clothing you would like to wear to blend in."

"I see. That boutique looks like my style…" Yuri said, pointing to a smaller, trendy looking shop-front. As he approached he saw Visvim designer clothes as well as some non-designer, but still cool, shirts. He quickly picked up a handful of shirts he would find fashionable to wear and a pair of khaki cargo shorts and two pairs of jeans. He finished up with some socks and boxers, though he was a bit embarrassed to have Conrad see that part of the selection. Just because he was engaged didn't mean he necessarily was comfortable with that sort of thing, though boxers were definitely better than those g-strings he was forced to wear in Shin Makoku, really, they really weren't as comfortable as the others seemed to think!

"…Uh, you don't happen to have a dressing room do you?" Yuri asked, scratching the base of his neck. "I think I want to wear out some of my purchase."

The twenty-something college student clerk pointed to the stall doors, "Bring out the tags of what you want to wear out."

Yuri nodded before entering the confined space, Conrad took up the pile of clothes Yuri had decided to not put on.

Standing in front of the mirror, Yuri watched the soft yellow fabric from the t-shirt land on his chest, the star decals adding style to the otherwise plain shirt. He slid against the wooden door as he watched the mirror, his black orbs flat as he lost sight of the defined dimensions within the room. Yuri drew his right hand to his temple scratching at his bandages, his back slid down the door until he collapsed to the floor panting.

He could hear it, all around him, that sickening cackle of Sousho's, the sounds of muffled screams and moans of agony… pain, fear, and along with it all, he heard Sousho's taunts so perfectly as if it were whispering in his ear sweet nothings that were nothing sweet.

_Hee hee, they're dying for you, ne, dying for their beloved maoh._

Yuri's pupils shrank back, his breathing hitched, scratching at his right ear he wanted to block out those noises, why couldn't he manage to turn a deaf ear to it? He knew it was happening! He didn't want it to be, but he didn't know how to stop it at all!

_Their blood's all on your hands, hee hee, it makes it so much more fun that way. Then again, as inadequate as you are, it really is no surprise that people have to die to compensate. All that blood on your hands, heh._

Yuri swallowed hard, venturing to disprove it, that the blood really wasn't on his hands, he cast his eyes to the right to spot his hand, his pupils became the size of pin-pricks, blood really was caking over his fingers, collecting in a ruby pool at his palm the size of a mochi-cake still wet. "KYAH!"

Conrad's head snapped to attention as he heard Yuri's scream. The pile of clothes discarded to the counter-top as he sprinted to the changing room, "_YURI!_"

His breath hitched in his throat as he panted, the walls were the same, that same meaty space as before, in that nightmare… no, no that really happened… so it couldn't be a nightmare. The room had transformed into that organ sac, now instead of needless prattling teeth and bones, though, the faces were still attached. Faces very familiar to what he had stared at in days prior, now bloodied and pained as those eyes fixed on him begging for salvation that wouldn't come…

"Yuri! Yuri open the door!" Conrad banged his fist against the stall door that he found himself unable to force open. "Yuri can you hear me? Yuri!"

The teen slumped over, his torso now parallel to the ground, Conrad pushed on the door again. He heard Yuri's pained breathing, he had to be pinned against the door… that had to be the resistance. 

Pushing on the door, he carefully moved it to force it open without banging it into Yuri, instead just adding a constant pressure to slide Yuri along the floor to give him just enough space to slip in.

Conrad stepped into the dressing stall, over Yuri before bowing down to him. "Yuri! Yuri snap out of it!"

He tapped the side of Yuri's face, "Yuri! Come on, Yuri, wake up." Yuri clenched his eyes as he began to blink a rapid succession.

"C…Conrad?"

"Yuri!" He let out a small gasp, he touched Yuri's right hand to investigate for injury, he spotted the crimson there as well as the crimson staining through his slightly torn-up bandage. Conrad's hand pulled Yuri's face to angle it at his own, locking eyes. "Yuri what's going on? What happened?"

Yuri bowed his head, "…It's n…"

"It isn't _nothing_." Conrad cut him off before the black-haired teen could waste his words.

He bowed his head, "…Compared to what's happening to _them_, it is." Yuri looked at the ground.

"Is Sousho signaling you somehow, is that why you asked if he really thought you were dead?"

Yuri nodded, "It's taunting me with these things, I know I can't do anything yet… but that doesn't mean I have to be happy about that! I… I just… I don't want their blood on my hands!" He looked at his hand, thrusting it out almost as if demonstratively.

Conrad grabbed hold of Yuri's hand, "Yuri, this blood, this blood here is your blood not theirs. Sousho hasn't gotten through to them yet, we still have time. I'm not sure if Sousho really is doing this or if you're doing this to yourself… but you don't have to face it alone, you have us here to help, so please stop internalizing it all."

Yuri pulled himself to Conrad's chest, the brunette raked his fingers through Yuri's hair.

"Come on, I'm taking you back to the hotel, you need to have that looked at, and then you need to sleep."

"…A… ah. Conrad, thank you. I'm sorry I keep making this into such a mess."

"You aren't! You're doing a damn good job of cleaning up one, not making it. You're doing better than what had to have been expected."

Yuri's head slumped forward, "…Ah. I'm so tired Conrad… I'm so tired of this all, it isn't fair, why do they have to keep suffering?" Yuri cast his eyes upward, into Conrad's brown eyes even though he knew that question had no fair answer to ask from Conrad, no he only had one thing he could demand an answer from, and he would do just that, on Sousho's deathbed. "I want to go back to the hotel and rest, I think it would be a good idea."

"Alright, I'll pay, you wait here and then we'll go out together, alright?"

Yuri nodded once.

"…Calbalcade, does that sound like a good place to go on a honeymoon?" Conrad said in an even tone, distraction might be a wonderful thing right now, indeed.

"…I can't think of that much…" He leaned into his knees, "I don't see why it wouldn't be, though." The soft blush let Conrad know that his efforts had some effect, at least.

"Alright. I'll be right back."

Within the minute of Conrad's exit, he returned, now with more bags in tow, he stretched a hand forward to take Yuri's wrist, pulling him to a standing position.

The two walked from the store, Conrad's left hand hooking around Yuri's waist to keep him propped upright, Yuri clutching at Conrad's sleeve, mindful of how he was yet again bloodying Conrad with himself, his head tucked against Conrad's side to give him some tether to earth. The two exited the store as Yuri was left to wonder how he could come to feel as if he was walking on a 45-degree tilt even though he came in with the ground being flat and level.

Yuri let out a slight sigh, "…I bet Shori is going to yell when we get back. I pulled out a stitch didn't I?"

Conrad just squeezed at the spot of Yuri's waist his hand monopolized, "I won't hear of it if he starts."

Yuri smiled, "Thanks, Conrad. You know I love you, right?"

"Of course, I love you too Yuri. Come on, we'll take a cab back to the hotel."

To Be Continued.


	19. Part 19 Death Becomes Us

In the several occasions Conrad had ever had to hail a taxi, not one of those times had ever been difficult, this time proved no different as he managed to quickly signal the noxious yellow sedan, quickly situating Yuri within the cab before himself, the bags of clothing tucked to his side allowing him more reason to sit closer to Yuri, as if the teen's condition didn't dictate enough purpose.

Yuri clutched at Conrad's jacket a bit tighter, his knuckles white from clutching at the same patch for so long.

Black hair made a slow motion fall as the teen slumped into Conrad's arm, crashing onto the solid surface, eyes closed softly, though Conrad knew better than to assume Yuri was asleep, near it maybe, but definitely not asleep just yet.

"Please take us to the Hilton." Conrad pitched in perfect Japanese, "Yuri, we'll be back to the hotel soon, try to keep up a little longer." Conrad already knew the scene ahead of them, especially if he carried a bloody Yuri back to the master suite, nothing he'd say would be able to shut up the Earth Maoh at that point, much like Gunter's rants whenever Yuri would slink out of lessons, though for the teen's credit not nearly as many times as he had personally skipped out on the silver-haired educator.

Yuri shook his head, unhappy about the prospect of staying awake any longer, "Too tired to…"

"But if you wait to get back to the hotel you can put on your pajamas and sleep in a very large, comfortable bed with warm blankets and soft pillows…" Conrad tried to convince the black haired youth that there really were reasons to wait.

"I already have a _pillow_ and feel perfectly _warm_." Yuri reasoned back, pinning his head closer to Conrad's arm as he lost himself more into sleep, "Moreover, I'm not going to have nightmares in this current sleeping condition."

Conrad swallowed back, so Yuri really was going to push the envelope, he understood why, well enough. He truly was dead on his feet, but that didn't mean he could overlook that loose stitch.

"Ah, but you still need to have your head re-bandaged, your doctor might be angry if you keep putting pressure on the rest of those stitches, too, you never know if it will tear another now."

Yuri's back stiffened.

"It would also draw a little less attention if I don't carry you into the hotel _Princess Style_, Yuri."

With that, Conrad was assured a half-felt victory, the teen forced himself upright, looking absolutely miserable for it. "…It isn't that I'd mind you carrying me to bed like that, but I think Shori'd have an aneurism…" Yuri let out quietly, just loud enough for Conrad to pick up on it.

"The thought had come to my mind, too." Conrad smiled, "After this you'll be able to rest as long as you want."

Yuri's head slid back to Conrad's shoulders, as he forced himself to keep his eyes open. "…You know, my head hurts now, too." He let off a soft whine.

"It can't be helped, you did truly tear a stitch, luckily it only looks like it's one of the edge stitches."

"That's not the kind of headache I have. I can already hear Shori yelling at me. And as soon as he's done yelling at me, he'll start yelling at you, lose interest, and start swarming me, hounding me some more." He sighed, he could even time it really.

The taxi cab stopped outside of the impressive hotel, it even had gargoyles for crying out loud! And not just protective lions, but actual marble gargoyles carved into the edges of the building, Yuri noted warily, Conrad's strong hand helping to steady him as he exited the car. The brunette paid the cabby his wage before the man drove off happily.

Yuri looked at the ground.

"Are you alright, Yuri? Are you regretting not having me carry you inside?" Conrad said in such a gentle prod that Yuri wasn't sure if he was being teased or adored.

"..." Yuri cast his black eyes back at Conrad's gentle brown ones, smiling ever-so-slightly, "I'll manage." The pair trudged inward, well, Conrad walked normally, Yuri trudged. Upon arriving to the elevator, the tell-tale screaming match began.

"Yuu-chan! Why are you bleeding?!"

Conrad smiled at Shori, his battle aura flowing outward, flooding the arena. Shori's eyes cast upon the brunette. "Not now, Shori, Yuri would like to rest."

"Not now? He's bleeding! What did you let happen to my precious Yuu-chan! The only reason I left you two go off together was…"

"Not _now_, Shori." Conrad's façade smile was given away by the way his eyebrows knotted, making Shori take a step back, he put his hand on Yuri's shoulders looking Yuri in the face as he measured his younger brother.

"Shori, I'm too tired to deal with this. Can you take me to the room?" Yuri rubbed at his eye, leaning into the wall within the elevator to keep erect.

Shori's voice softened instantly as he turned to converse with Yuri, "A, of course Yuu-chan."

"Are Jose and Minami there as well? Either should be able to take a look at it." Conrad ventured, still holding up the bags of Yuri's temporary attire.

"…"

"Yuri?" Conrad's eyes could tell the shifting presence in Yuri's energy, moving quickly to steady the onyx-haired youth, the teen collapsed, completely spent.

"YUU-CHAN!" Shori looked over Yuri in complete disbelief of the other fainting.

Yuri's eyes squinted open as he felt the heat of a flashlight beam landing over his closed eye, on his temple.

"Yuu-chan, can you hear me?"

He felt what felt like two pin-pricks on the side of his face before he felt a needle pierce his elbow.

Minami cut the thread and then turned off the flashlight. Putting a fresh bandage over the side of Yuri's ear she said in a low, gentle voice, "I just gave him a bit of a pain-killer, it should relax him too. I'll head back over to my suite, you should let him sleep for a bit."

Yuri's eyes opened half-way, "Huh? Shori…? Where'd Conrad go?" He tried to slide himself up the back of the bed's headrest, meeting with minimum success.

A thought struck him as Shori answered him, the thought consuming him more than the actual words leaving Shori's mouth. "Your no-good fiancé who left your soul to rot went over to the convenience store to get something, probably condoms knowing a deviant like that you really should just leave him…"

"That's it! Shori you're a genius!" Yuri said, forcing himself up further.

"…Eh? Yuu-chan are you even listening to me? I'm bad-mouthing him right now for leaving your side to do deviant things." Shori explained slightly slower, Minami probably gave him valium, did they inject that though? If he could recall, it did have the tendency to make conversations take a few minutes to sink in…

"Somehow Julia made an illusion for my soul in order to trick Sousho… so, that should mean I could make an illusion, too, in maoh-mode I could make it look like the others disappear and then…!"

Conrad's eyes went small as he stood in the door, "…Yuri, I think you're missing a small detail in your plan… you don't have the _energy_ to go _maoh_ right now."

Yuri smiled, "Conrad! No, no I should be able to do…"

Shori's hand went to his face, "…Yuri, there's no way that could work. He's right in his assessment, you don't have the strength to."

"No? But what about you?" Yuri smirked at his moment of genius, "YOU still have plenty of your majutsu available… I could open a portal to send over the remainders while you make an illusion then, if not with them disappearing, with them dispersing or going somewhere else to distract Sousho… if they're still on holy ground maybe it would confuse it too much to…" Yuri's eyes double-focused for a few moments making the whole room spin in one circle of vision clockwise, the other circle of vision counterclockwise.

"Yuri, there's no way that would work." Shori explained again, his brother seemed to be stubborn on this point.

"It isn't! I can definitely do something like…" Yuri grabbed his head, as the room continued to whirl he could see reds and fleshy pinks and orange-tan tones, that organ-sac and what had happened when he was in it looping in on him, Sousho's smug laugh… it was like nails to a chalk-board to Yuri.

His pupils shrank inward, again. Panting he tried to deepen his breaths to calm down, to somehow get out of the loop.

"Yuri?" Conrad's firm fingers curled over Yuri's shoulder, it took Yuri several minutes to register he was looking into brown eyes, his eyes began to blink in a rapid succession before he took in a marked breath.

"Uh, oh, sorry… you were saying something?"

He knew they were giving him unnerved looks, he could see it in their faces. "We'll wait no more than two days then we're going back. I _will_ open that portal and you can choose to help me or not, but that's not going to stop me from going." He lowered his head, "Holy grounds should take at least a few days for Sousho to break through in its current, weakened state, right now that just means it's a race between which of the two of us can recover faster."

Shori's eyes narrowed dangerously slim, "…And what if it can recover faster than you, then what?"

Yuri looked down, "I'll probably die." His eyes turned back up, he smiled confidently at the now very unnerved remaining members within the room, "So let's hope I'm faster, ne?"

Conrad and Shori looked at each other, shocked. For it to roll off so easily, something so catastrophic so simply from his lips, it was incomprehensibly ugly of a thought.

"I'm completely against it, Yuu-chan! I'd rather they die than…"

Yuri's eyes darkened, "Don't finish that sentence if you know what's good for you, _older brother_."

Shori swallowed hard, "…But Yuri, be reasonable! Don't you understand the implications of…"

Yuri shook his head, "I don't plan to die, so I'll just have to make sure I win. Sousho has to be defeated, while its weak like this is my best chance, if it starts killing people, it will only get stronger, and I can only get so much stronger but there is almost an exponential potential for it to grow. I think it's better if I hit it first. Don't worry though, I know people would be sad if I died, and I don't want anyone to be sad, so I have more reason that it does to win. I want people to be happy, to live freely and in harmony, there's way too much at stake for me to be allowed to lose."

Conrad put his hand on Yuri's cheek, "Are you really sure you can handle something like that?"

"…Conrad, it isn't that being courageous means having no fear, on the contrary, it means to do what you can in spite of it. I can do this, so believe in me, okay? I hear I'm credible in such things."

Conrad kissed Yuri's lips, leaving Shori gaping in horror. "I'll do everything in my power to protect you, Yuri. I believe in you."

Yuri smiled, "Thank you, Conrad." He blushed, looking at Shori, "Ah, sorry, we're flirting in front of you too, wow that… heh, sorry Shori." Yuri tapped his head to Conrad's chest, "I want to sleep now, Shori can you go back to your room?"

Shori backed out of the room, still quite shocked by that impromptu passionate kiss along with the way his Yuu-chan could state how easily he could die, no he had to talk to Minami to arrange for every way possible to slow down Sousho and prevent that from happening completely, he wouldn't let his brother die, not even over his dead body!

"Conrad… lay down with me?" Yuri asked once his older brother left the room, closing the door. "I want to get a good sleep, I always sleep best with you near me."

Conrad swallowed once, mission in mind, "Of course, Yuri. Just tell me if you need anything."

Yuri smiled gently before resting his eyes shut, just as Conrad slid off his shirts and shoes, slipping under the covers before pulling Yuri's body close to him, "I love you Yuri."

As Yuri fell into a serine, calm sleep, Conrad fought his own nightmarish thoughts of a world without Yuri and how he would never let himself live to see such a dark place, no, he'd die before let that sort of hell come to pass.

To Be Continued.


	20. Part 20 Open the Gateway to Shin Makoku

Yuri pulled closer to Conrad under the covers, his cool skin seeking the brunette's warmth. Tan fingers drew around Yuri to assist him in the process of snuggling closer to the seasoned soldier's warm body.

"Conrad, I came up with a plan, I want you to hear it out."

Conrad looked at Yuri, unsure as to what Yuri's 'planning' was for, though he had his suspicions that it wouldn't be as enjoyable as one he could come up with while pressed to the young maoh alone in a hotel room, in bed.

"Of course, Yuri." Conrad smiled gently, his eyes squinted closed for a moment before reopening to watch Yuri's eyes and read the teen's level of determination.

"…Sousho won't be defeated just by moving them to Shin Makoku, you realize that right?"

Conrad hid his own souring mood, "Yes."

"When I open that portal, once everyone else gets through, I want Shori to go to Shin Makoku to get Morgif and Murata." He looked down, "…I'm going to be almost completely out of maryoku, so when Sousho possesses me…"

Conrad's arms tightened around Yuri protectively, causing the teen to flinch before continuing, that had surprised him, the sudden jerky motion.

"What do you mean when?"

"I'm the only person to ever defeat Sousho, and I can only really do that if I purify it, I'm not going to have the actual strength to do that if it's externalized and relies on maryoku, but if I rely on my… quality of soul, my actual majutsu and not my elemental manifestation of it…" Yuri looked into Conrad's eyes in fierce determination, "I need you to stay by me, if I can't purify it, it would still be weak from everything, and I'll be running on empty. If it means killing me to stop Sousho someone has to do it. I, by no means, want it to go that far but if it does, I want you to know that's my choice."

"…You're asking _me_ to kill you, if you can't come back?" Conrad seemed to be in a bit of disbelief. Yuri has had some unnerving things in his days, but even this was a bit much!

"I know it sounds really cruel, but Conrad, you're the only one who'd stand a chance in actual combat, and if I ask you, I know you'll go through with it… Shori never would be able to carry through it. And I'm sorry, I understand the kind of position I'm putting you in, but if I don't succeed and Sousho has my body… it can destroy both worlds, you know I can't allow that for _my_ sake. Conrad, please tell me you will."

After a long pause, Conrad dropped his head, "…I can't believe you're asking me to say yes to killing you, Yuri…"

"It wouldn't really be me at that point." He corrected, he needed to get Conrad past that point, it wasn't really something he could avoid, "And you'd know it when it would pass the point of return."

"I… if it comes to it, I will." Conrad let out a sigh, "And then we'll meet in the next world."

Yuri let out a slight sigh, "If everything goes according to plan we won't have to deal with that ugly mess, but at least now I know there's a contingency if it goes wrong." Yuri pressed his face to Conrad's chest, "I'm sorry to ask so much from you."

Conrad bit his tongue, he really did agree that _that_ was more than a bit much. His arms squeezed tighter into Yuri's frame, not giving the teen an ounce of free movement, no right now he needed to have his own sense of security reassured, that Yuri truly was still in his grasp.

"Of course, I'm probably going to be a demanding spouse, if I think about it, I always seem to put so many conditions on you, I'm sorry…"

"Just sleep, I want you to get as much strength back as you can, because I don't want to have to hurt you like that, or any other way-- ever."

Yuri let out a soft breath, "Alright. Good… good night Conrad, I love you."

"I love you, Yuri. Sleep well."

Conrad found the next 48 hours the shortest time he had experienced in either world, miserably short with the current risks, in fact.

Yuri sat up before getting out of bed, "I can't believe you actually did pin me to the bed, Conrad…" Yuri's blush gave away his joy over the experience.

Conrad merely smiled knowingly, it was the most enjoyable way he could think to spend those two far too short days.

"…And I can't believe Shori didn't try to interrupt once, is he still here?" Yuri was shocked, normally if his brother was around he had time to be a busy-body, but as it were, after they had conversed about his plans to go to the hot springs within the span of days the older Shibuya simply walked out and hadn't come back in. "…I didn't piss him off where he's ignoring me now, did I? No, normally he pouts more, calling me such a mean little brother and then proceeds to ignoring me… so that isn't it…" Yuri thought aloud.

Letting out a small breathy sigh, Yuri stood up, getting his clothes together.

"I'll tell Minami to get the car ready."

"Thanks, Conrad." Yuri smiled at him, a bit more energetically. It really was amazing, how much sleep could rejuvenate someone.

Conrad bowed politely before exiting the room, after all, he still needed to get in touch with Shori and _explain_ Yuri's plan, well, part of it. He knew Shori wouldn't be happy with any of it, but he at least had to convince the earth Maoh to return with Morgif and Murata.

Yuri locked eyes with his own reflection, he touched the bandage at the side of his head, happy to see that he could at least have a smaller wrapping now, he took in several deep breaths to psyche himself up. "You can do this Shibuya, top of the ninth, we can still win this thing…"

The door opened, Yuri turned partially to see who was entering, "Oi Conrad, are you coming in?"

He felt a towel hit him as it was launched from the opposite side of the room. "Still using that kind of analogy to get hyped up, you really are still a kid, Yuu-chan!" Shori glowered.

"Ah… uh Shori! Where've you been? It isn't like you to not stop by to annoy me more… no, that's not how to say it…" Yuri mumbled, his voice became more focused, "So, you'll do it, right? You'll go through the portal to get Murata and Morgif, won't you?"

Shori's eyes narrowed, "Don't you think that's risky, leaving you with no one able to help recharge you, what happens if you collapse again, huh? Did you even consider that?"

Yuri smiled, so Conrad hadn't explained all of it, heh, well that was good in it's own rights, "I did think about it, but the time variance is still large enough that you won't be gone very long at all, and we'll be able to hold Sousho off until you get back, definitely. It'll go according to plan, I'm sure it will."

"Do you really think you can open a portal that large, and then after that take Sousho on?! Yuu-chan, what you're talking about doing, do you understand how much that is?"

"I'm going to do it, either way, so it would be nice if you could just support me in my decision, Shori."

The older of the two let out a defeatist's sigh, Yuri was going to be stubborn about this, he could tell. "Alright, I'll go. You're planning on needing your friend and my maryoku to help you recharge afterwards, aren't you?"

Yuri nodded vigorously, "I'll be pretty much completely wiped out after this, too, I suspect. But I'll be able to at least go home to have some of okaasan's curry before we have to head back to Shin Makoku, so that will be nice." In the back of Yuri's mind he calculated how after that he wouldn't get to come back for at least a year with all the paperwork and trouble Shin Makoku must be facing, which would be another plus to having Murata back there with them, he'd be able to fill Conrad and he in quickly.

"Yuri, Minami's pulling the call around now."

Nodding, and smiling at the idea of getting it all over with, Yuri turned toward Conrad, "Mm! Great, okay, let's go then!"

No one thought the car ride would be light and cheery, the atmosphere was entirely wrong for it. For Yuri, he used the time for strategizing, Conrad was treating it like a morbid death march- the same solace of going off to battle all those twenty-some-odd years ago, Shori had an equally pensive feeling. He knew Yuri was keeping his plan from him, well a sizable portion of it, which meant he was going to do something impromptu, foolish, and dangerous, well, even more dangerous than opening up a portal to use even more maryoku than the two previous times and that frankly was a scary thought saying how 

after each time his younger brother collapsed, and this time he'd collapse with an enemy no more than twenty meters away, just waiting to swoop in on him.

Jose and Minami didn't seem to have any opinion on the matter, Jose true to himself tried to keep the air as light as possible, pointing to things like the otaku tourist he was, commenting in some instances how in episode X of this anime, this was the exact spot the artist had taken as a reference point for some spiritual meaning or another, while at other instances asking if that random store, that no one else had ever went to, sold this flavor of ramune, or had hakkaido because of the region they were in…

Yuri let out a slight laugh while Minami's knuckles tightened on the steering wheel, getting more annoyed by the moment by the tourist to her left. "If you don't want me to crash this car off the next overpass you'll keep your comments to yourself, otaku."

Jose laughed at Minami, half-heartedly, sure she was joking. Minami, herself, was no longer sure if she was.

And thus went the three hour drive, Minami stopped the car, still twenty minutes out from the inn. "Shori-heika, this is where you get out for now."

Shori nodded, "Alright. Yuu-chan, be careful. Jose is going to take you both the rest of the way, Minami." He signaled with a tilt of his head to the left, the woman slid from the car.

"…Ah, wait a second, Shori, what are you doing?" Yuri asked, unsure of the deviation from his own plan.

"We're going to secure the parameter, you wanted me to distract Sousho, I'll be there twenty minutes after you, so don't worry Yuu-chan."

Yuri nodded, "Alright. Be careful, you too Minami, you need to get through the portal too, so you really shouldn't be late." He smiled, "Well, more than what's fashionable of course."

Minami smirked, "Well, a girl has to be fashionable." She posed with her hand on the back of her head, jutting out her leg and hip to enhance her feminine curves before blowing a kiss in the air at no one. "But I still have to pick up some stuff for your going-away party."

Yuri laughed nervously at the way she seemed to read it, she really was sharp if she figured that part out, he really hoped Shori hadn't thought it through to that point, he didn't really want to worry Shori needlessly, and if it happened it was because nothing else could prevent it. "Well, I do plan on coming back, so don't do anything too extravagantly."

She smiled, "Deal."

Jose took the wheel as Shori and Minami waved them off, he started the car up, "We're counting on your hard work!"

The others nodded, "See you soon, Yuu-chan don't you dare get hurt!"

Yuri smiled, "I'll be fine, Shori!" He waved, Jose stomped the gas, quickly taking off toward the inn.

Conrad put his hand on Yuri's arm, "Are you ready for this, Yuri?"

He closed his eyes and let out a breath, "Of course I am. I just want this to be finished. I don't want to risk any more lives as it." He looked out the window, "I wonder where Sousho is right now, though. It has to be up to something…" His eyes slimmed as he thought the unpleasant thought. "Ne, Conrad, you don't think Sousho might be trying to get a hold of another 'powerful weapon' while it's waiting for me, do you? Like how it went after Alfonso's holy sword…"

In advisor-mode, Conrad put a hand to the bottom of his chin, "There is that distinct possibility, though there aren't as many opportunities for something like that in your world…"

Yuri let out a sigh, "You're right, people don't usually walk around with swords, well, except cosplayers… and a knife isn't something Sousho would necessarily drool over as far as _power_ so…" Yuri smiled, "I guess I am getting a bit nervous, but it will work out, I'm sure it will."

"I'm glad you're confident." Conrad put a hand on Yuri's shoulder, then tilted over to kiss him. "Think of that as a good-luck kiss, okay?"

Yuri smiled, "Oh I think you can do one better for luck…" Yuri closed his eyes, "After all, here I am about to put my life on the line, here…" He smirked just as Conrad swooped in, adding a bit more tongue in this 'good luck kiss' parting after a ninety second lapse. "That's more like it."

The smile was radiating, Yuri knew it, but even as he got out of the car to approach the inn he could hardly make him suppress it, that kiss really had felt too good to just cut into like that.

He allowed himself to sober as he walked toward the remaining Mazoku, "Everyone, may I have your attention?"

The necromancers turned to face the maoh, eager with hope that this would mean they could go home.

"Everyone, I am going to open a portal, it is important that when you go through you do so in a calm but timely manner. Today it is imperative that you all move through."

There were several excited cheers, Yuri smiled at his people, "No matter what happens, just keep going until you have crossed. Please head to the main bath-house now. I will open the portal within the next ten minutes."

The group dispersed, "Jose, please stay with them to make sure they're moving along. Conrad, come with me, I'm going to set up the portal."

"Alright." Jose smiled, "Right this way folks…" Jose waved his hands ushering them from the hall.

To Be Continued.

A/N: XD Hi all! I hope you're enjoying it so far, I want to thank all of the people R & R'ing and ask that you check out my other stories, even the Wolf-centric ones. - I promise they have relevance, I couldn't physically write something in Kyou Kara Maoh without any ConYuu love, it isn't possible. I think there 

are only a few chapters left in me for Necromancer, and I apologize for these last few chapters being so short, but hey, it's something! Later all! Please remember to review.


	21. Part 21 Tadaima!

Conrad took up a large bag of sea-salt walking a straight line as he let the contents pour out slowly.

As Conrad busied himself with laying out the purification barriers, Yuri looked into the water, taking several deep meditative breaths. He touched the tips of his fingers to his temple, he could feel the stitches just underneath the bandage. Sousho had been far too lenient for it not to be up to something.

"Conrad, I'm ready when you are."

Nodding, the brunette poked his head out of the main entrance, signaling Jose to start the procession.

Yuri touched the water, the massive hall illuminated oceanic shades of blue, faintly chasing away the shadows to the corners. He took in several breaths, making the entire pool a portal, truly the largest portal he had ever summoned. Conrad's eyes scanned across the crowd to Yuri and back every sixth second.

Taking in a hiss of breath Yuri cast his eyes toward the maintenance entrance, he felt the activation of maryoku, so Shori was making his move now? Good! He refocused his efforts on the pools.

"Right this way…" Jose shuffled the bodies through, each taking paced steps as they moved through in sets of crowded lines. He looked at his gundam digital watch, he noted inwardly that the portal had been open for seven minutes by this point. He wondered where Shori was, and what was taking him so long to return.

Conrad seemed to pick up on that same fact as he continued to watch the crowd.

Swallowing hard, Yuri could feel the sweat making his bandage stick to his hair, he continued to focus his eyes, his extended right hand braced by his left as the maryoku light display shimmered.

Jose looked at the end of the line, coming up, so they were down to the last one hundred, huh?

Approaching Yuri, Conrad whispered discretely, "Can you keep this up?"

Yuri nodded once, "Mm, I have to. Have Jose check to see if he can spot Shori and Minami." Conrad bowed before moving through the crowd to approach Jose, still keenly focused upon the strategically weakest points of the building.

Slipping to one knee, Yuri continued to hound in his own air, counting as the number of Mazoku transferred increased and the number of those remaining diminished. "…Come on, I need a little more, a little longer…" Yuri motivated himself, whispering to himself below what was audible over the mulling crowds of pacified subjects. He felt his vision fade in and out, pulsing with the near-complete emptying of his own powers.

As Jose was about to leave the shielded room, Shori and Minami rushed in, Shori pushed Minami forward, sending her running toward the portal. Yuri smiled faintly as he saw her legs moving at the end of the line, only ten more people and then he'd be able to… Shori approached Yuri.

"Yuu-chan… hang in there!" With that, he and Minami disappeared into the portal. It collapsed behind them as a gust of wind blew in from where they had entered.

Yuri smiled, "Perfect timing… Sousho…" Collapsing forward, Yuri knew he had blacked out.

Everything around his was suffocating, the pain in his chest he could familiarize to Sousho clawing its greedy way in. He did his best not to make audible protests, he knew this would hurt, but he knew it had to be done.

The fragmented Sousho had a way of infecting his mind, hacking memories to liken to itself and corrupt the feeling. In this instance, Yuri found it strangely perturbing, the way Julia looked like, with Sousho's gaping mouth and hollow, starving eyes as it tried its hand at newer versions of psychological warfare.

Bracing himself for the imminent, Yuri glared into the figure before him.

Conrad rushed to Yuri's side. The black, crackling aura surrounding him was acting like a caustic shell, protecting Sousho in its breeding-ground as it incubated itself, trying to lay claims to Yuri's vessel.

Drawing the sword Himiko Jennifer had lent to him, he began hammering the hilt against the opaque swirl of black mist. "Yuri! Yuri, fight it!"

He doubted his words would physically pierce the darkness but he hoped that somehow at least the will behind the words would penetrate the veil.

Conrad felt a soft breeze to his back, turning around sharply he spotted Shori, Morgif in hand, gaping. Murata behind him, tampered with his glasses, he returned to striking ineffectually at the shell.

"…This… _THIS_ was his plan?!" Shori's sour face was a fine indicator of just how pissed off he felt at the moment.

Casting his eyes to the left Conrad could only answer the truth, "He knew it would have to come down to this. Whether you knew or not wouldn't have made a difference."

Shori grabbed Conrad's arm, hand pulled back just wishing he had the time to concentrate solely on beating the crap out of the other, he let his fist drop to his side. "This is too much of a strain on him! You're supposed to be his vassal, you couldn't even talk him down from something so high-risk?! I swear you're useless at times!"

"I don't mean to but in to _family_ business, here, but… you do realize there isn't very much we can do, right?"

Conrad's eyes locked the more ovular pair of black eyes, "We can wait, which is the one thing we have to do. That doesn't mean we have to do it patiently, though."

Shori felt his lower eyelid twitch, "Friend of my little brother, do you have any ideas?"

Murata fixed his glasses, "Well, older brother of my friend, I don't think there is much for us to do in this situation." He paused to think, "Actually, there is one thing…"

Shori's eyes widened, "What is it then!"

"…Hold Morgif." Shori did as Murata suggested, not seeing the point until he explained, "Now we start to charge it."

Shori's shoulders slumped, what was he a _battery_ _pack_?

Conrad was beginning to scowl, as it was, Yuri had been in that cocoon for over twenty minutes, and while he knew last time it had been almost half a day… he didn't like it. Something was wrong. His eyes widened before focusing in on Murata sharply, "When Shinou-heika came to be infected with Sousho were there any signs? Any indicators before-hand?"

He fixed his glasses, "Why what brings up this little topic?" Ken asked, knowing full-well of Yuri's private get-away between just the two of them, he and Sousho in the heart of darkness.

"Dreams. Nightmares specifically, did Shinou-heika become afflicted with them?"

Ken's face dropped, unhappily. "Do you know anything about the dreams? When they started?"

"I don't have a clear start-point, no. He didn't tell me when they started, but I noticed him having them on several occasions. They were worsening after his interactions with the necromancers specifically."

Murata scratched under his chin, "But what about lately? When Fujihara-sensei started to work _with_ you?"

"They dissipated until his interaction directly with Sousho."

"Well if that's any indicator… Where are the purification salts she used?"

Shori blinked, "I don't understand how that has anything to do with one another? With Minami and Sousho?"

He took his glasses off, cleaning them, "Think about it, when he came in contact with the necromancers' charms he became agitated and yet with hers… well, she has a good deal of maryoku and that wasn't tainted with Sousho in the first place. Her charms are different from the others' now aren't they?"

"I'll give you that, but how would that help Yuu-chan?"

Murata smirked, "That's exactly the thing, Shibuya's trying to purify Sousho. We can use it to weaken Sousho's aura, this is sacred land, isn't it?"

Conrad nodded though he doubted it was necessary, Murata would know, after all this is his world.

"See that? Then let's start putting up some proper barriers. It'll be like cutting a tree from two sides."

Shori approached a large burlap sac filled with fat semi-translucent crystals, taking it up to his shoulder before returning.

"Do you remember the patterns she used before when she put up the barrier to slow Sousho down?"

"No, but she had the diagram in the trunk."

Murata nodded, "Alright, I'll go get that. Older-brother-of-my-friend please keep charging it, Weller-kyou, please continue to keep guard."

Conrad nodded, not like anything would have made him leave his current position. Ken fixed his glasses again knowing full well what Conrad was doing was ineffectual, not like he'd say that to either of the two. Everything being done was more to eat up their own time, Shibuya had to make the final decision, he either would win and live, or lose and most likely die, he was setting up to make sure it really was most likely that he'd die. All the purifications in the world wouldn't weaken Sousho while it burrowed into Shibuya's mind, no, it was already shielded. They were producing a buffer zone in case it broke free.

He could have used any of his own barriers, as well, but he knew he needed a moment alone to think, to react. He also knew Shori and Conrad were going to have a little heart-to-heart that he really couldn't be near. And Morgif? What did that really do? That was for that final stage, he knew Yuri would need that maryoku to expel Sousho, the risk came if he didn't win when he came to and Sousho acquired a charged sword… well, that would make Conrad's job even more tedious.

Conrad knew he should say something to Shori, if only for moral support, but the words fell short. He wanted to say it and believe, but it made it hard, looking at Yuri the way he was. "I believe in him. I believe what he decided was the only way. What he's doing is to protect everyone, something he would want done. I hate that he's doing this though. Just this once I wish he would have been more like Wolfram and be selfish, to be selfish enough to run away."

Shori shook his head, "That's one thing Yuu-chan never does. He insists on being head-strong and not consulting his big-brother before doing stupid, stupid things like this!" He chastised in the general direction of his brother, "You had better get out of there alright, Yuu-chan! And when you do… you don't even want to know the chewing-out you're going to get from big-brother!" He let out a sigh, knowing the threat was in vane, after all, if Yuri did get out of that alright he'd be far too busy hugging him to actually yell.

Conrad put a supportive hand on Shori's arm, knowing all too well just how hollow that threat was.

Looking down, Shori thought aloud, "You really piss me off. Trying to be all cool in front of him and impress him, giving in to his demands even when you had to have known something like THAT was going to happen… I understand he's his own person but that doesn't make it wrong for me to want to protect him from the ugliness in the world!"

"You're an excellent older brother and I know he loves you for it, but I'm not trying to be his brother. I want him to be treated like an equal and be given the space to grow into all he has the potential for. As 

such, I can't just shield him from everything, he'd never learn that way and the what-if scenarios that happen if I'm absent are far worse than him falling with someone there to catch him."

Shori sighed, "You're trying to be cool for me, and it won't work. I'm not impressed by my little brother's fiancé. You piss me off way too much to be able to pull off being suave." Fixing his glasses, he had to admit that did sooth his own nerves, a little… JUST a little bit. "Don't spoil him too much, we have to live with him."

"But of course. Not _too_ much." Conrad smiled, as his face contorted he glared at the ominous shroud. He took a step towards it. "Though after this, he will definitely receive the full treatment of pampering and spoiling to the point where he'll hardly be able to stand it."

"Agreed."

Ken approached with the schematic. "You two done with the heart-to-heart? Good, now it's time to get to work. We only have so much more time before Sousho tries to revive, and we'll only know then if Shibuya will pull through."

"When." Shori corrected, looking at his brother's prone form, "Because you don't want to be near me if he doesn't."

Yuri swallowed hard, he could hear that depraved cackle in his ear, well, his persona's ear, not his physical one. It was smiling as it continued to rant, digging into Yuri the best ways it could do. 'I can't lose myself… I won't lose myself.' Glaring at Sousho, Yuri turned to face it, his eyes shrank back at the image it chose next.

It just had to do that, the rude little… he saw the difference in the eyes as Conrad stared back at him, the same depraved smile Julia had bore was now stretching unnaturally far across Conrad's lips, the eyes darkened and more red as Sousho stood, seeming to be happy upon it's decision to settle on this face.

"Your mind is spacious. Must be because you're so empty-headed, idiot."

Yuri swallowed back, 'Cheap tricks like that aren't going to do it, I know you aren't really him and the thing you say wouldn't be the things he'd say, ever!'

"…Oh, but you're so right. He'd never _say_ them… to you. But are you so convinced he wouldn't think it." Sousho approached, touching Yuri's chest, pushing him back, "You really are pathetic, and what's with that hair-cut? Mou, it really is ugly. What happened, someone attack with hedge-clippers? And that ugly scar forming… good thing you're a maoh otherwise the benefits couldn't possibly outweigh the costs."

Stumbling back, Yuri was pushed to a wall as Sousho continued to bully him. "I bet this entire time you thought you were special, too. Well, you are dumb, so being slow is an understandable part of the condition. The mediocrity is impressive, how someone can skate by just so narrowly on so many different fields…"

Yuri closed his eyes, opening them sharply. 'I am not mediocre. And I don't skate by, I don't slide under the radar, I work for goals and I accomplish them.'

"With lots of help, because you couldn't even do anything as simple as move a few people on your own. That is a bit pathetic. Too weak to even do a proper evacuation. Really now three times? It took you that long to move over such a small audience. You did a great job with letting them die. It makes it easier that way. Oh, should I say thank you? But that is giving you a bit more credit than you deserve. You're such a child. This is your inner sanctuary, your mommy and daddy's…? You can't even construct your own home, as the maoh you don't even have that much of a mind to you. Simply pathetic!"

He balled his fists, 'I'm not going to fall to a fraction of Sousho. I'm not afraid of what you're saying, I've heard it before! It doesn't scare me, what others think! I already told you, I work for my goals and progress toward them. I will not be swallowed in your darkness or despair! I've established contracts… peace… the humans and Mazoku are finally coming to terms with each other and that is my doing!'

"…Oh, did no one inform you of the war? Human against Mazoku, with some countries siding with your own only to be massacred; well both sides are facing plenty of death and despair. Don't you get it yet? Your reign is a failed experiment. A bad plan that was centuries in the making. You think you cured people of the blight of war? Ha! Well, at least your ego is grandiose. The one thing of you that is the size of a maoh-ship is your ego, amazing."

'War…' His eyes shrank back.

"Ha, they didn't even tell you? See, even they realize just how useless you are, they didn't want to bother the maoh with such a small thing like the massacres of thousands."

'…War…' Yuri felt the world darkening around him, he shook his head, no! No, now isn't the time! Sousho had to be lying, Gwendel wouldn't let it become a war, his advisor is savvy enough to avoid that, and Yuri knew once he got back and went on the circuits he'd be able to discourage any war-hawks.

"Can you really?"

Yuri flinched at the unexpected intrusion of his own thoughts.

"You're predictable. Predictable and boring, you really think you're so great to stop a war that has plagued a planet for millennia, just because you're optimistic no less? Let's go visit Big Chimeron then…"

Yuri's inner sanctum transformed into the sight of a bloody battle-ground, corpses littering the earth as others moved on, continuing to fight.

"Oh, you shouldn't turn away, after all, you're so brave and so good this isn't really happening, right? I'm just making this up… riiiight."

Yuri grabbed his mouth as he saw a soldier gut a twelve-year-old that tried to run away for him. He slid his eyes closed, clenching them tightly. The screams echoed throughout the air. His eyes snapped open. 

'This isn't happening. This is not happening, it's a lie!' The strength in his voice absolute as he turned to face Sousho.

Sousho, in Conrad's shape, widened the red eyes in surprise. "Damn you are dumb, you're seeing it and you still can't even believe it. Ha."

'This isn't happening, and it isn't working. I won't fall for your tricks Sousho. Even if something as horrible as that is happening, when I get there I WILL make it stop.'

"…Oh, if, that's your realization that it is possible, good, you aren't that stupid. You're still in denial… but…"

Murata watched the swirling clouds surrounding Shibuya. "It's changing… we have to hurry, Older-brother-of-my-friend, give him Morgif!"

Shori looked at Ken for a moment before throwing the sword to Yuri, as Morgif approached, the shadow separated, a hand reflexively caught it, then stabbed it into the earth, leaning into it, feeding off of the stored maryoku.

The war-scene before Yuri vanished as he appeared back within the dining room beside the kitchen of his home. He looked at his hand, surprised to see a sword in it suddenly. "Morgif?" He turned to face Sousho.

"Oh, and will you use that to destroy this face?" Sousho smirked.

"…Absolutely." Yuri took up the sword, and in one of the advancing stances Conrad had taught him, he lunged forward, running through Sousho, who seemed a bit surprised to find itself impaled. "You are fear, that is what you represent, hatred and fear. I have none of that for you! Disappear!"

Yuri's form collapsed to the ground in a tangle of limbs, Conrad rushed to his side, the air around him sparkled as though he were surrounded by fireflies.

"Yuri…!"

Thick black eyelashes fluttered open and closed. "C…Conrad?" He smiled, looking at those intense brown eyes. "…Murata!" His eyes opened wide as he sat up, a bit too fast, but he managed not to stagger. "Murata, there isn't a war is there?!"

"Shibuya…?" He approached Yuri, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Of course there isn't. You have very capable advisors."

Yuri let out a lengthy sigh, "Oh thank goodness. I want to get back to Shin Makoku as soon as possible… I just want to see everything okay…"

Shori glared, "Not happening. Not until you come back home and have curry, after that… after that I'll personally help you get back."

Yuri blinked, "…Eh? Shori? That's not like you… at all." He lowered an eyebrow. "Why are you acting like that?"

"Acting like what? I'm your older brother… Yuu-chan."

"…Yeah, I _know_ that…" he looked at Conrad as if asking for an explanation, unfortunately he saw the exact same question in those eyes, "…Oh, you want to know what happened, don't you?"

Conrad nodded once.

Yuri let out a sigh, "I don't really have the energy to go into that in full detail… suffice to say Sousho isn't coming back. That thing really was a monster, trying to use that face…" he glowered, "Ne, Conrad, tell me you love me…?"

"I love you, Yuri."

Yuri smiled, "That's all I really needed to hear. Thank goodness." He fell forward in a strange mixture in between a faint and asleep.

To Be Continued.

A/N: Only one or two chapters left. XD Thanks for sticking around so far, please R & R!


	22. Part 22 Home is Heaven

Conrad's arms wrapped securely around Yuri, fingers taut around Yuri's lithe arms as he pressed his lips to Yuri, tongue slipping between those two sweet flaps of flesh, deepening the kiss while simultaneously keeping the wilted Yuri upright, his left hand let go of Yuri's arm only to wrap around his back, pressing him closer.

Shori rushed closer, hand waving in the air, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO MY PRECIOUS YUU-CHAN YOU DEVIANT!"

Conrad pulled back after a few moments more than what was absolutely necessary, he turned to look at Shori, hungry wolf eyes landing on the older Shibuya who knew that the original recipient to the gaze had in fact been Yuri.

"I'll give you that one. That really was just to 'molest' him." Yuri's mouth twitched upward into an open-mouth smile as the only reaction of the unconscious teenager, short of a hand clutching unconsciously at the fabric of Conrad's jacket.

Shori's eyebrow twitched temperamentally before he all but yanked Yuri to his feet, even with the teen obviously unconscious. He slung Yuri's left arm across his shoulders, his right hand hooking to the opposite side of Yuri's trim waist to prop him up all while the left hand pulled the weight of Yuri's left arm to keep it draping him in an interesting take of a Yuri-cloak.

Conrad took up Yuri's right arm, also propping it over his shoulder in order to assist Shori, though he would happily just carry Yuri princess-style.

Murata smirked sinisterly at the image. "Ne, older brother of my friend, did you grab Minami-san's car keys?" He asked in that almost innocent sounding, yet realistically goading voice that told him he knew he did not.

Shori's eyebrow shot up in a crooked angle. "…"

"Well, I guess we could walk, or, you could hop back over to Shin Makoku, you really should bring Morgif back on your way, though."

His eyes narrowed dangerously, knowing that he really didn't have any choice before he went to the drawn water. Conrad happily taking the opportunity to lift Yuri princess style to bear his weight with less strain on the teen's joints knowing full-well how achy he would be the next day.

Shori stepped into the water, and as Conrad turned his head back, was being launched outward, Morgif no longer in his possession, the keys, however, were. "I'm driving, I doubt any of you are licensed and even if HE is, I'm not letting him drive my precious Yuu-chan." Shori explained, glaring demonstratively at Conrad.

Conrad merely smiled, not as if he particularly minded that, if anything that meant he'd be nearer to Yuri when the teen came around.

Murata opened the car door for Conrad to slip Yuri into the back before going to the other side to enter, Conrad sat next to Yuri on the other side, flanking the maoh as they each buckled in. "Yuri, it's time to wake up now." Conrad said in a gentle voice, his hand brushing down Yuri's cheek.

Yuri turned into the contact, though his eyes insistently stayed sealed.

Conrad leaned close to his ear, whispering something, Yuri turned to the other side, his eyelids folded tighter then flickered up and down while remaining shut.

"Yuri…" Conrad smiled softly, knowing Yuri would awaken shortly.

Black eyes opened, unfocused at first, then blinked back to clarity. "Eh? A car… where…?" He turned to spot Murata then Conrad, he noticed Shori driving before turning back to Murata, "Murata, what's happening in Shin Makoku?"

The great sage smirked, "Damage control is fully operational. Several treaties were revised, two new treaties drawn up, and everything is awaiting your approval on your desk in a very hap-hazardous pile."

Yuri let out a low groan, "I figured so much… thank goodness." He turned to spot Conrad, his fingers laced with the larger hand before squeezing, "I'm sure okaasan will be happy to have you over again."

Murata smiled, "I also bring news on Cheri-sama's design plans for the wedding."

Yuri turned bright pink at that, Shori swerved for good measure across a lane of traffic then back. "Designs?! But, I mean, we haven't even made the announcement public yet…" He looked at Conrad, "I mean, not that that isn't great… but… I mean, isn't she moving a bit fast?! Conrad!"

"Truthfully, in Shin Makoku there is a custom that states there can not be hostile actions during phases of nobility wedding plans, though Cheri-sama didn't announce whom was to be wed, the rumor was circulated to calm neighboring areas." Murata explained. "After all, Cheri-sama only had so many wars…" He implied.

Yuri turned deeper shades of scarlet, Conrad just smiled, implying that that really was the custom.

"We'll be home in three hours, Yuu-chan, go to sleep if everything's okay now, alright?"

"…Alright, alright, I know. I'm tired," Yuri leaned on Conrad's shoulder before falling asleep, "Good night… anou, it's alright if I use your shoulder, isn't it Conrad?"

"Of course it in Yuri, though you could use my lap if that makes you more comfortable."

Yuri blushed softly, "No, this'll be fine… I think…" eyes fluttering closed, this time Yuri gave himself over a little more willingly to sleep.

-.-.-

Yuri awoke dressed in his pajamas on his comfortable futon, blinking, he wondered how long he managed to sleep as Conrad knocked on the door lightly.

"C… Come in Conrad." Yuri smiled, sitting up as he rubbed the sand out of his eyes.

"Good morning Yuri, though it isn't really that early."

"What time is it?" Yuri stretched his arms trying to get his energy levels back up.

Conrad looked at his naked wrist, "Dinner time." He smiled back at Yuri cutely, making the obsidian-and-ivory colored teen smile more relaxed.

Mouth opening excitedly, Yuri asked, "Really? I mean, I know we're back home, but… it almost seems surreal."

"Well, you did manage to sleep for five hours. After we got back, I was put to work in the kitchen to help with dinner."

Yuri smiled a bit more apologetically, "I'm sorry, you keep getting put to work whenever you come over, but you cooked with okaasan? I can't wait to try what you made!"

Conrad put his hand on Yuri's cheek before leaning in to kiss him, "I pealed the potatoes will all my love."

Yuri poked his tongue out, "That didn't sound to sincere."

Conrad's mouth engulfed Yuri's exposed tongue capturing him in the kiss, Yuri, surprised by the action, opened his mouth letting Conrad to deepen the kiss, pressing his tongue into the moist cavern, rather exploratory as he mapped the contours and grooves. Yuri clawed the fabric around Conrad's chest kneading it between his curling and uncurling fingers, pulling back he whispered, "You taste like curry powder. She had you doing more than pealing potatoes Food-Taster-san."

Smiling, playfully, he explained, "Well, of course I have to be assured that anything being fed to you is of the utmost quality, even including Earth's food, though I didn't inspect it for poisons."

"Ha, well, as long as Shori or otousan aren't cooking you don't need to. But you said dinner's ready, so I'm going to change…" Yuri started to unbutton his shirt, "You don't have to leave you know…" Yuri blushed as he mentioned that, before Conrad could completely turn around.

Conrad approached, "Well then, shall I help you get changed?" He smiled warmly as Yuri's cheeks grew brighter, he worked on Yuri's buttons as the teen's hands stopped working in a pleasant take of embarrassment.

Shori knocked and opened the door to spot Yuri being stripped by Conrad. "You damn hentai! Stop corrupting our youths!" Shori yelped as he pulled Conrad from the room, "Yuu-chan, dinner's ready, come down when you're ready. As for you! Take a cold shower you dog! How can you be so shameless 

with people in the house! I can't believe Yuu-chan's fiancé is so brazen! That's it, I'm enrolling you into a Japanese etiquette class!"

Conrad merely chuckled as he was pulled from the room, giving a slightly apologetic look to Yuri that he couldn't continue seducing him as shamelessly as Shori had accused him of.

-.-.-

Yuri took a bite of the curry from his deep spoon, slurping it down happily, it was so warm and delicious… he took another several spoonfuls of his okaasan's curry.

When Yuri finished the bowl, Shori stood up and went to the kitchen, gathering up a container of the curry and some other provisions from the Shibuya kitchen before putting it into a plastic bag, "Alright, I guess the shower will be the easiest way to make a portal, unless you wanted to take more time here, Yuu-chan…"

Yuri stood up, "Oh, um, no that won't be necessary, okaasan, we have to get going, thank you for dinner; it's as delicious as ever!"

"Yuu-chan, call me Mama!" She smiled, blushing.

Murata's glasses shone brightly for a moment, "Well, Mama, I have news from Shin Makoku for you, the wedding is going to be a winter wedding so that once they decide on the colors, those colors will pop on the white backdrop, and the seamstresses are already working on the fur cloak for Shibuya to wear, I've been assured that it will be very beautiful, I promise I'll sneak a camera over to take some candid shots, too."

Miko clapped excitedly, "Really! Yuu-chan will be such a beautiful bride, I trained him well for how to wear a dress you know, ever since he was--"

"Ahahaha… um, we have to go, NOW!" Yuri grabbed Murata and Conrad's arms and began to pull them to the bathroom, "Shori, you coming? Thanks, bye…!"

With a splash, the three Mazoku returned to their world, Yuri sitting up to realize he had wound up landing on Conrad, though he was fairly certain the brunette had made that tactical decision as to how to manage it, with the suggestive nature of the arrangement. Yuri bolted to his feet to look down at Conrad and offer a hand, really, sitting on his fiancé's lap in Shinou temple around squealing shrine-maiden fan-girls was a bit much.

"Heika!"

"Yuri-heika!"

"Heika! You're back!"

The group swooned, Conrad put his arm around Yuri's shoulder and smiled in a way that flipped the circuit-breakers to their minds, making their attempts of forming flirty sentences end, as well as any and all other thought processes.

Yuri smiled, "So that's how you do it, you set it to stun?"

Conrad's eyebrow arched suggesting that Yuri had guessed right-on, before kissing him.

"We really need to get back to the castle." Yuri groaned, envisioning all the work. "…Calbalcade really does sound like a good honey-moon spot, but do you think we can stretch the honeymoon over a few months? You know, travel to different alliances, relax, schmooze, sign peace treaties, relax…"

"Why Yuri, you sound as if you're tense." Conrad began to rub Yuri's shoulders making the teen melt into the contact.

"…Like I wouldn't be." He sighed touching his bangs, "Mou! I need to get this trimmed up into something cute again! And I want to see the new village, too…" Conrad lifted the bag of prepared foods before approaching the wagon.

"I'll make some arrangements, but let's get back to the castle first. I'm sure there're things to do there."

"I know there are. Murata, you said _mountains_ of paperwork, right?"

Murata smiled apologetically, "Think Alps."

His shoulders slumped, "…Great."

To Be Continued.


	23. Part 23 Travel into the Sunset

Slumping into the cushy chair, Yuri leaned his neck back in order to search for the top of the piles of paperwork. Oddly enough, the contours did ring out a rather fitting Alpine skyline. He hung his head dejectedly, in doing so, spotting his feather quill and bottle of ink.

He wondered about making a stamp, but figured Gunter would protest, especially with how things seem to go missing from the palace…

As he reached for the quill he felt his skin brush against a soft, cashmere-like textured knit. His hand detoured in order to grab it, pulling it from behind the pile, he smiled warmly. Sure he hated wearing all the cutesy clothes, but somehow the bear-bee cap just couldn't make him flinch, it really was too adorable to detest. He could tell this one was new, too. It wasn't a true cap, more like a wide hair band, the fabric knitted about fifteen centimeters in height with two protrusions for ears and two flaps at the bottom, the color a soft crème shade that would accentuate his black hair poking out from the top and underneath the lip.

Smiling, Yuri stood up and approached a mirrored tray in order to put it on to model.

"Wow! Sugoi!" Yuri approved, making a now serious face, he returned to the desk thankful that Gwendel was such an avid knitter, and liked him as a prospective brother-in-law and maoh. He eyed the paperwork, alright, maybe not as maoh… if he hadn't made the headgear, Yuri was sure, the alps would be missing the Romanian borders. He sighed before taking up the quill and bottle of ink, setting forth in signing.

Yuri was surprised when the person to interrupt his paperwork ritual was no-other than Gwendel, himself, Conrad not far behind him as he discussed matters with Gunter.

"Yuri-heika, your other duties require your attention…" Gwendel began, he hesitated upon seeing his cap donned by their ruler. A blush crept up his cheeks until Conrad nudged him pleasantly, stiffly, in the back between his ribs. "Hm, yes, currently you are needed to inspect the city-works project."

Letting out a low groan, Yuri cracked his back while stretching upright, putting the quill down. "I hardly even dented the pile, though, if all this keeps up I'm not going to be able to get to rest 'til I'm… Conrad, how long to half-Mazoku tend to live?"

"Well into their four-hundreds, Heika."

"I see, thanks, until I'm 440."

"If it takes you that long to finish signing all the paperwork I'll personally…" Gwendel cut short his internal 'kill you' to, in the same pleasant way Conrad nudged him, substitute, "work on it while you're inspecting them."

Yuri turned his head, "A public-works project, though? In Shin Makoku? Which city?"

"Ah," Gunter began to spin about in epic poses as his arms outstretched, lecture mode on, "Heika, after you inspect the new city it will be honored by the name you deem worthy for it! After all, as the 27th Maoh of Shin Makoku and the reason for the village's construct, it is only appropria—eh?"

Before Gunter could finish the sentence, Yuri was out of his seat rushing for the courtyard, "Why didn't you say it was their village! Come on! Let's go! I can't wait to see how they're all settling in!" Yuri smiled, Conrad quickly matching pace to keep up with the teen.

"Oh, heika!" Cheri waved excitedly upon spotting him, clutches of fabric in her grasp. Conrad felt the tell-tale prickles of nervous sweat as Yuri, and he slowed know that was the wrong response for now. "There you are! Mou, I've been telling Gwen-Gwen to schedule some time with you two for consultation."

Yuri turned his head to the side, "Eh?"

"Well, we have so much planning to do! After all, there's the flowers, the colors, the location, cuisine, guest lists… not to mention your…"

"EH?!" Yuri's eyes went wide, apparently Cheri really would be planning the wedding, he thought she just wanted to meddle, not actually, well… she had a portfolio seven inches thick with planning information!

"Mother, unfortunately, at this moment Yuri-heika must hurry to attend a meeting at the new village. We can discuss these finer details later tonight, at dinner perhaps?" Conrad said, bowing politely and cutting off his own mother's tangents knowing just how excited she became. It was in his life-experiences how he had learned to keep her from putting the cart before the horse in anything romantic.

"Oh, no fair, here you are, having hogged him for months and months at a time," She elbowed him suggestively, "doing who knows what with him and that innocent face and now you're denying me the pleasure of…"

"Who's denying you anything, mother?" Conrad's scarred eyebrow rose, "Earth does not have the same time-flow as here. Although holing him off for months between the two of us isn't particularly unpleasant of a thought to me, as I'm sure you could understand."

Cheri blushed, "Oh Conrart! I knew you took after me, you're such a romanticist!" She clutched Conrad to her chest to squeeze him tightly, Yuri watched the banter go back and forth, blushing as Cheri pressed her son's face to her bosom until he was pulled into the same embrace which made him turn even more deeply crimson. Between Conrad's face being next to his, and being pressed to a woman's… very well endowed breasts, it was enough to make any healthy, normal teenage boy turn colors.

Yuri pulled back, after making sure to keep his hands out and away from her in a way that screams 'this is platonic even if I AM turning scarlet' reaction. "Aha, ha… Cheri-sama, we really have to… go to the… a…"

"Village." Conrad finished for him, having freed himself from his enthused mother. "Gwendel will surely be able to schedule a meeting once Yuri has caught up with his works and duties. Until then, he still needs to recover from using his majestic powers back on Earth."

Seemingly pleased with that, Cheri smiled, "Alright. I'll just run some of the color-schemes by him to help narrow it down." She pointed happily.

"Uh… wait…" Yuri's hand stuck out, Conrad shook his head telling him to let it drop there, his hand did just that as he muttered loud enough for Conrad to hear, even with Cheri's squeals in time with her retreat, "…but he's going to pick cutesy colors like pinks, isn't he? That'll be almost as bad as one of us actually really WEARING a dress…"

Conrad laughed into his knuckle, "I'm sure he wouldn't be so insensitive to our own tastes. He does have a good grasp on our personalities after all. Besides, we can always decide else-wise later."

"…True."

"So, let's head to the village now, I'm sure Minami-san and Kiyosuke-san will be glad to see you." He smiled, particularly happy when that same reaction spread to Yuri.

"You're right. We have time to deal with that later."

Conrad's fingers found the tips of Yuri's black bangs that protruded from the crème headpiece, "Of course."

Yuri smiled before leaning in close to Conrad, kissing him, the sounds of a wolf-whistle and whooping made him quickly spin to spot several soldiers cheering for their captain and Yozak, fingers still touching to his lips.

Conrad smiled confidently before waving at them, even as Yuri wilted in embarrassment.

"We can continue that in the carriage if you'd prefer." Conrad smirked, his hand pressed behind Yuri's back and to his shoulder guiding him onward.

"Oh, um, y-yeah." Stammering, blushing, Yuri agreed before turning back to face Conrad. Taking Conrad's hand in his own, they walked albeit awkwardly with the two points of contact to the carriage where Conrad helped him inside. "So, how far away is the village from here?" Yuri asked, Gunter and Gwendel having caught up to accompany the royal couple.

"A quarter-day's ride, we should be back tonight in time for the court dinner." Gwendel informed.

"…Anou, you're coming too? You didn't want to stay behind? Its unusual for you and Gunter to both leave like this…"

"We're staying in Shin Makoku and you need a royal guard, your fiancé can hardly be seen as the only one taking you about, even if it is unannounced."

"…You're saying that so we can't elope?" Yuri asked.

Gunter smiled, "That is correct, if you did that, the allied countries would fear political ramifications, that it might mean you were ready to proceed to war."

Eyes widening, Yuri looked at Conrad shocked.

"Once you've gone on the circuits that sort of concern will easily be forgotten, of course, Yuri." Conrad informed, kissing Yuri's hand within the private audience.

"Oh thank goodness." Yuri turned to face Gwendel, not really tempting the fates to ask what was being done for the paperwork, but the dark-grey haired Mazoku seemed to catch on.

"Under these very narrow circumstances, Anissina was more than happy to volunteer in the assistance with this. She's taken a liking to the leader of their village."

"…You mean Mi--"

"Of course I'm talking about Kiyosuke. She and Minami will never meet. Ever." Gwendel's face darkened threateningly, "EVER."

Yuri nodded sheepishly, "…Ahaha, uh, right… _ever_. But she likes Kiyosuke? That's strange, isn't it? I didn't think he would be her type…" He paused to think as to why Minami was able to stay so close to Kiyosuke, the fact that she escorted a handful of children over, the wheel clicking, "Wait! Minami and Kiyosuke aren't together are they? Minami got along with him, and those two are so much alike, but I didn't think those two got along like that, after all Minami has her own child and husb…"

"It appears Kiyosuke is her half-brother." Gwendel informed, trying to end those thoughts on the matter there. "Whether they get along for that reason or otherwise I do not know nor do I wish to know. She appears to be married though, yes."

Yuri let out a breath, "Oh, I see." Yuri glanced at Conrad demonstrating in his black orbs that he was still a bit confused.

"They seem like they were close, growing up. It might be a strange take of a brother-complex?" Conrad smiled, teasing Yuri just a bit about Shori, "Oh, well, in this case as it appears mutual, maybe a sister-complex is the better way to state it."

With that, Yozak approached the carriage, bowing he explained, "I'll be your driver today, Heika… Captain, please enjoy the scenery, I'll try not to interrupt any further impromptu make-out sessions. Though Captain, you dog you… out in the open air like that."

"Yozak!" Conrad's hand reached the hilt of his sword, ending the conversation at that.

And with that, the group rode into the noon sun, knowing that by day's end the royal couple would ride back in by carriage into the setting sun.

The End.

A/N: This will be continued in future stories within this series. To all of the readers keeping tabs on the story, thank you, please continue to R & R! I hope to see your reviews in future chapters.

(So far, the timeline has made this Self-Restraint-Necromancer-Endangered Hearts (please read it, I swear it has more to offer than KeeRam and MuRam, it does give back story for future parts!)-Lured Away from this Life- on aff-dot-net Lemonade for Hangovers. More is on the way, again, so please look forward to it!) I'll try to come up with a series name soon so I can just state that and then it's number in there. ((May 30, 2008)) Also! Thank you for getting me up to so many reviews! I'd love to see the story hit 110 and thus beat out my record with a story in a different fandom (that is "slightly" longer) but I'm still happy just getting as many as I have! You guys rock!


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